Rocket Lab has announced that it has raised $140 million in Series E funding, which was closed in advance of the company’s second successful orbital mission called “It’s Business Time” on November 11th. This round of funding was led by Future Fund. Current investors Greenspring Associates, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC (Data Collective), Promus Ventures, and K1W1 also participated in this round. And new investor Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) of New Zealand joined this round as well.
This round of funding will support Rocket Lab’s continued Electron vehicle production expansion along with new launch sites and three new major research and development programs. With this round of funding, Rocket Lab has raised more than $288 million so far. And this funding round led to Rocket Lab soaring past a $1 billion valuation.
“It has been a big year for Rocket Lab with two successful missions to orbit and another about to roll out to the pad, but it’s even more significant for the global small satellite industry that now has a fully commercial, dedicated ride to space,” said Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck. “This funding also enables the continued aggressive scale-up of Electron production to support our targeted weekly flight rate. It will also see us build additional launch pads and begin work on three major new R&D programs.”
Rocket Lab has started construction of the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2. Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 is based at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Launch Complex 2 will be able to support monthly orbital launches from US soil and it is designed specifically to service the responsive space needs of government customers.
“Rocket Lab is a truly remarkable company. We were fortunate enough to follow Rocket Lab’s journey from their initial engine program to the first launch, the factory scale-up and now the start of commercial operations, all of which happened in record time,” added Khosla Ventures partner and chief technology officer and Rocket Lab board member Sven Strohband. “We are proud to continue to support Peter and the amazing Rocket Lab team in their journey to open space for all and are excited about the next chapter.”
According to CNBC, Rocket Lab’s global workforce doubled to 330 employees and the company opened an 80,700 square foot mass production facility in Auckland, New Zealand last month.
