Space Capital reports record investment in space companies in Q2

Space companies have been increasingly attracting investors in recent months, especially as Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’ space race continued making headlines this year.

Space companies secured $4.5 billion in investments

On Wednesday, Space Capital said in its report that private investment in space companies climbed to a record $4.5 billion in Q2.

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“This was the largest quarter on record for space infrastructure investment, despite only two space company SPACs closing in Q2,” founder Chad Anderson disclosed in the report.

The announcement comes only days after Branson became the first person to go to space in his own spaceship. Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos is set to join the club next week.

In its quarterly report, Space Capital breaks down sectoral investments into three categories: infrastructure, distribution, and application.

Infrastructure pertains to pure-play space companies like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX and others that manufacture satellites and rockets. Distribution includes companies that develop technologies to connect terrestrial systems to space networks. Lastly, application represents navigation, ride-hailing and other space-dependent services.

Space companies to raise over $8 billion in capital in H2

The companies that Space Capital tracks (1,553 in total) boast cumulative global equity investment worth close to $200 billion across the three technology categories since 2012.

Prior to Q2, the highest infrastructure investments in the space sector stood at $3.9 billion noted in the third quarter of 2020. The industry secured $9.1 billion in annual investments last year – a record that, as per Anderson, is set to break in 2021.

The jump in investments in Q2, as per Space Capital, was primarily attributed to Relativity Space that added $650 million and OneWeb that raised more than $1 billion. The New York-based firm expects space companies to raise north of $8 billion in capital in the back half of 2021.