{"id":829718,"date":"2025-02-25T13:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/industry-executives-predict-more-thoughtful-new-wave-of-space-deals\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T13:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:12:25","slug":"industry-executives-predict-more-thoughtful-new-wave-of-space-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/industry-executives-predict-more-thoughtful-new-wave-of-space-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry executives predict \u201cmore thoughtful\u201d new wave of space deals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Voyager Technologies, the lead partner on the Starlab commercial space station, confidentially filed plans for an IPO in January. Credit:<\/span> Voyager Technologies<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Space company executives project a new wave of investment and consolidation in the industry that one called a \u201cmore thoughtful\u201d version of the previous surge five years ago.<\/p>\n

During a panel session at the Space Mobility conference here Jan. 28, representatives of several companies said they were seeing signs of both renewed investment in the industry as well as potential merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are entering a more thoughtful version of 2020 from an industry perspective,\u201d said Andrew Rush, co-founder and chief executive of Star Catcher, a space-to-space power beaming company that raised more than $12 million last year<\/a>. Rush is the former chief executive of Made In Space, a space 3D-printing company acquired by Redwire.<\/p>\n

He was referring to a prior wave of investment in space companies five years ago that included both venture capital investment and companies going public through special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Investment dropped precipitously after 2021, though, because of higher interest rates as well as poor performance by many of the companies that went public through SPACs.<\/p>\n

Rush pointed to several signs of an improving investment climate, such as launch vehicle developer Stoke Space\u2019s $260 million Series C round<\/a> announced Jan. 15, Redwire\u2019s $925 million acquisition of drone manufacturer Edge Autonomy<\/a> Jan. 20 and Voyager Technologies\u2019 confidential filing of paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we will see folks leverage the public markets for growth capital,\u201d he said, citing Voyager\u2019s plans, \u201cas well as mature businesses with more traditional fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very confident that we are going to see an increase in IPO activity in 2025,\u201d said Andrew Magliochetti, co-founder and managing partner of IronGate Capital Advisors, a firm that invests in companies making dual-use technologies. \u201cWe\u2019re already seeing M&A activity increase within our portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he expected more \u201cconsolidation and aggregation\u201d in the sector. \u201cIf you want to build an enduring company, at some point you have to look at inorganic growth,\u201d he argued. \u201cI think we\u2019re in a five-year period where there\u2019s going to be quite a bit of M&A.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a very interesting couple of years ahead of us,\u201d said Clare Martin, executive vice president of in-space services company Astroscale U.S., citing the \u201chuge boom\u201d of investment a few years ago. \u201cI think we\u2019re reaching the point now where you\u2019re going to see some consolidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

That consolidation is already underway involving companies in the previous \u201cgold rush\u201d of investment in the field, said Chris Carella, founding partner of advisory firm Entra Mantra and a former executive with satellite propulsion company Benchmark Space Systems. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity, I think, to capture the reenergized investment,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be well-informed investment and well-informed customers with a lot more clarity than there used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He compared the previous wave of investment of buying \u201can arm\u2019s length of 50\/50 tickets,\u201d a type of raffle. \u201cBut now, we should know enough about what I actually want to spend my money on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews.<\/p>\n

He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor\u2019s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Jeff Foust\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voyager Technologies, the lead partner on the Starlab commercial space station, confidentially filed plans for an IPO in January. Credit: Voyager Technologies ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Space company executives project a new wave of investment and consolidation in the industry that one called a \u201cmore thoughtful\u201d version of the previous surge five years ago. During a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1541,648],"tags":[9602,7377],"class_list":{"0":"post-829718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-executives","8":"category-industry","9":"tag-executives","10":"tag-industry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}