Tag Archives: Elon Musk
SpaceX Looking To Raise $60 Million Round of Funding
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is a space transportation companies that was started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. SpaceX is building reusable space launch vehicles called the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 along with a Dragon series of vehicles.
The company started in 2002 and employs about 800 people. Musk himself put $100 million in seed funding for the company. After that the company raised $20 million in Series A from The Founders Fund. The company is now pursuing an additional $60 million additional round. DFJ put in about $15 million of the new round.
Last year SpaceX launched a rocket into space after failing three times. Now SpaceX is being hired by aerospace companies and the government to launch satellites.
[via VentureBeat]
Categories DFJ, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Elon Musk, SpaceX, The Founders Fund
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Tesla Raises $465 Million From Department of Energy
About a month after Daimler put in an investment worth 10% equity in Tesla, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that they are putting an additional $465 million loan in the company. Tesla will be using the loan to develop the Model S sedan.
It is pretty impressive that Tesla was able to convince the federal government to give them the loan considering that Tesla is far from profitability. Tesla has also increased the price of their automobiles for customers that have already put down deposits. The Model S prototype does not have much to show in terms of a prototype yet either. But what Tesla had was the Governor of California’s support.
Over the next two and a half years, Musk will need to build a powertrain factory and make the Tesla vehicles more affordable to reach a profit. That’s quite a feat to pull off and we wish Mr. Musk well.
[via Gawker]
Categories Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, U.S. Department of Energy
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Tesla Founder Elon Musk Wants A Shot At Running Detroit
Looks like Elon Musk let Governor Arnold Schwarznegger’s words about Detroit getting off their butts and taking notes from Tesla get to his head. “When the mess gets sorted out, I’d like to have a conversation with whoever’s in charge at the time — the car czar or whoever — and say ‘I’d like to run your plants, if you don’t mind,’” stated Musk at Wired’s Disruptive by Design conference in Manhattan.
Musk believes that the electric car is inevitable and will be the future. “The reason I’m putting so much time and effort into helping create Tesla is because I’m hoping we can accelerate that transformation,” stated Musk at the conference. Musk made $200 million when his company PayPal was acquired by eBay around 2002. After PayPal Musk has been an investor and is focusing on three other businesses. This includes electric cars at Tesla, space exploration at Space-X, and energy technology at Solar City.
Musk said that one of the problems with Detroit is the union system. He said that he believes that unions are important, but if there are going to be unions they should be on the same side as the company.
“Most of our experienced factory workers come from unionized environments, and we asked them what benefit did they see in unions,” he added. “They said, ‘Well, if their boss was an asshole, they had recourse.’”
[via Wired]
Categories Elon Musk, Tesla Motors
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Daimler Invests In Tesla For 10% Equity, Investment Worth “Tens Of Millions”
The automotive manufacturing company behind Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG spent “tens of millions” of dollars to buy 10% equity of Tesla Motors. Tesla, based in San Carlos has been working with Daimler for quite some time to improve battery technologies.
Daimler has already been selling an electric automobile called the Smart Car. Tesla was the company that provided the batteries and chages for the Smart Car.
Daimler used to own Chrysler after merging in 1998. Nine years later, Daimler sold Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management.
Tesla is best known for building a roadster that costs over $100,000. Last March the company announced a more affordable Model S electric sedan that costs about $57,400. The Model S is able to get 160-300 miles on a single charge.
Earlier Tesla had attempted to raise $100 million in funding, but settled for $40 million from previous investors. The partnership will also give Tesla access to Daimler’s “engineering production and supply chain expertise,” stated Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk. Herbert Kohler, VP of Daimler’s electric-drive systems will be joining the board of Tesla.
Musk was a co-founder of PayPal which sold to eBay for $1.5 billion. Before that Musk sold a company to Compaq and merged a company with Confinity. Musk is also the CEO and CTO of SpaceX.
[via LAT]
Categories Daimler AG, Elon Musk, Herbert Kohler, Tesla Motors
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