{"id":110532,"date":"2021-03-25T14:02:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T14:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=110532"},"modified":"2021-03-25T14:02:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T14:02:52","slug":"rocket-builder-abl-raises-170-million-from-t-rowe-fidelity-to-become-the-latest-space-unicorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/rocket-builder-abl-raises-170-million-from-t-rowe-fidelity-to-become-the-latest-space-unicorn\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket builder ABL raises $170 million from T. Rowe, Fidelity to become the latest space unicorn"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Rocket builder ABL Space closed a $170 million round of funding, with a $1.3 billion valuation that makes it the latest private space venture to reach the unicorn valuation mark.<\/li>\n<li>ABL raised the funds from T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management, as well as a third unnamed investment firm and existing investors.<\/li>\n<li>&quot;If you compare us to other companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing launch vehicles, you should see how fundamentally differentiated our underlying approach must be to achieve that,&quot; ABL CEO Harry O&#x27;Hanley told CNBC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rocket builder ABL Space closed a $170 million round of funding, the company announced on Thursday, making it the latest private space venture to reach the unicorn valuation mark.<\/p>\n<p>ABL raised the funds from T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management, as well as a third unnamed investment firm and existing investors, at a valuation of $1.3 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We have always prided ourselves on capital efficiency,&quot; ABL CEO Harry O&#x27;Hanley told CNBC, noting that the company has spent &quot;well under&quot; $50 million to date.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If you compare us to other companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing launch vehicles, you should see how fundamentally differentiated our underlying approach must be to achieve that,&quot; O&#x27;Hanley added.<\/p>\n<p>The company had previously raised $49 million in venture capital to date, with investors including Venrock, New Science Ventures, Lynett Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures. ABL had also announced nearly $45 million in contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX, with the company on Thursday saying it now has contracts from ten &quot;distinct customers,&quot; from a mix of commercial and government customers.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We think the global space economy has significant long-term growth potential,&quot; Jason Adams, portfolio manager of T. Rowe Price&#x27;s Global Industrials Fund, said in a statement. &quot;We think ABL has a management team, technology set and product strategy that should enable long-term competitive advantages.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>ABL&#x27;s RS1 rocket stands at 88 feet tall, and is designed to launch as much as 1,350 kilograms (or nearly 1\u00bd tons) of payload to low Earth orbit \u2013 at a price of $12 million per launch. That puts RS1 in the middle of the commercial launch market, between Rocket Lab&#x27;s smaller Electron for $7 million and SpaceX&#x27;s heavy Falcon 9 for $62 million.<\/p>\n<p>It also pits ABL against several other companies developing &quot;medium-lift&quot; rockets. Richard Branson&#x27;s\u00a0Virgin Orbit recently reaching orbit, while ABL is alongside Relativity Space\u00a0and\u00a0Firefly Aerospace in aiming for the companies&#x27; first launches later this year.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the economical approach of ABL&#x27;s rocket development process, the company also touts the efficiency of its GS0 deployable ground system. It&#x27;s essentially the barebones of a launch facility \u2014 the erector, fueling, electrical, control center and more \u2014 all packed into a few standard-sized shipping containers.<\/p>\n<p>O&#x27;Hanley told CNBC in January that ABL&#x27;s rocket program was already &quot;fully funded&quot; through its first mission, and on Thursday said the added $170 million in capital &quot;will give us the opportunity to set up for scaling up launch cadence to meet all the demand we are seeing in 2022 and beyond.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It will also let us carefully start exploring more opportunities both in space tech and other domains,&quot; O&#x27;Hanley said.<\/p>\n<p>ABL&#x27;s new valuation also makes it the latest space venture to pass the unicorn mark of a valuation above $1 billion. The company is now among the most valuable in the growing space industry, which is led by SpaceX with a $74 billion valuation and followed by a variety of companies that have announced SPAC deals in the past six months. <\/p>\n<p>Dan Piemont, ABL&#x27;s president and CFO, shared his view on the company&#x27;s new status.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We don&#x27;t see our valuation as an achievement so much as a serious responsibility to deliver value,&quot; Piemont told CNBC. &quot;We&#x27;ve never optimized for valuation and we&#x27;ve kept most of our achievements private. We know we still have a lot to prove. We&#x27;re out to build an enduring company with the best people, customers, and investors in the world.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Hopefully this round shows that there&#x27;s something special happening under the hood here at ABL. If you want to learn more about what that is, get in touch,&quot; Piemont added.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/03\/25\/abl-space-raises-170m-from-t-rowe-fidelity-at-1point3-billion-valuation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket builder ABL Space closed a $170 million round of funding, with a $1.3 billion valuation that makes it the latest private space venture to [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rocket builder ABL raises $170 million from T. 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