US manufacturer XCOR Aerospace has sold US$14.2m worth of preferred shares in a Series B round to help get its Lynx suborbital spaceplane to the market. The funding round was led by Dutch investors Space Expedition Corporation (SCX), the group’s main…
US manufacturer XCOR Aerospace has sold US$14.2m worth of preferred shares in a Series B round to help get its Lynx suborbital spaceplane to the market.
The funding round was led by Dutch investors Space Expedition Corporation (SCX), the group’s main wet-lease customer and general sales agent.
SCX’s investment gave it a minority position in the Californian space flight and rocket developer without control provisions, and the group’s Michiel Mol and Mark Hoogendoorn will also be joining the board.
The Series B round, which has scheduled a second closing event over the summer, also featured existing investors including serial space travel angel investor Esther Dyson and Pete Ricketts, who co-owns of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. A number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and early-stage investors also participated.
XCOR founder and CEO Jeff Greason said: “We are very pleased to have this first closing of the Series B and welcome Michiel and Mark to the board.
“This investment will allow us to accelerate and run in parallel several final developments in the critical path to first flight.”
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) has already given its approval to the foreign funding, stating that it is not a so-called ‘covered transaction’.
XCOR plans to compete with other upcoming spaceflight groups like Virgin Galactic to capture anticipated demand for space tourism.
ShipInSpace, a UK start-up that planned to dwarf its competitors with a craft that could carry 44 people, recently put itself up for sale for US$200,000 after funding issues.
