Elon Musk's SpaceX to Raise $500 Million in Funding: Report

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX Corp is set to raise $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,500 crores) at a $30.5 billion (roughly Rs. 2.1 lakh crores) valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the fundraising plan.

The company is raising the capital from existing shareholders and new investor Baillie Gifford & Co, who is also the third-largest shareholder in Musk-led electric carmaker Tesla.

The company plans to invest the fund in the company's satellite Internet service, Starlink, WSJ said.

The proposed services - essentially a constellation of satellites that will bring high-speed Internet to rural and suburban locations globally - are key to generating the cash that SpaceX needs to fund Musk's real dream of developing a new rocket capable of flying customers to the moon and eventually trying to colonise Mars.

SpaceX declined to comment.

SpaceX investors are paying $186 (roughly Rs. 13,000) per share for new stock in the latest funding round, WSJ reported, adding that it is up about 10 percent from the $169-per-share paid during an April fundraising.

In April, Reuters reported that SpaceX was raising $507 million in a new round of funding, valuing the company at around $26 billion.

The Hawthorne, California-based company has outlined plans for a trip to Mars in 2022, to be followed by a manned mission to the red planet by 2024.

Separately, SpaceX's launch of a much-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military was halted on Tuesday, postponing for at least a day the space transportation company's first designated national security mission for the United States.

© Thomson Reuters 2018