Elon Musk’s SpaceX is ready to raise $500 million through funding, making the rocket company’s valuation increase to $30.5 billion, according to WSJ. The report added that this funding will be raised from the company’s existing shareholders and Baillie Gifford & Co, Tesla’s (TSLA) third largest shareholder.
SpaceX plans to utilize the funding amount to invest in Starlink, the company’s project to provide the globe with high-speed broadband internet via a network of satellites. In November, SpaceX got the approval from the US regulators to launch more than 7,000 satellites, which are designed to provide broadband internet connections.
According to Crunchbase, the Hawthorne, California-based company had raised $250 million in November through a debt financing in which Bank of America (BAC) was the lead investor and SpaceX has raised a total of $2.2 billion in funding over 17 rounds as of November 2018. Google and Fidelity had invested in SpaceX in January 2015 through a Series G funding.
After Tesla reported its third quarter earnings in October, the Scottish private equity firm Baillie Gifford stated that it would invest more money into Tesla if CEO Elon Musk requires it.
It’s worth noting that SpaceX scrubbed its GPS launch Tuesday morning. The GPS, which was scheduled to launch at 9:30 AM ET, was halted a few minutes before the launch. SpaceX tweeted that the hold was due to an out of family reading on first stage sensors and the launch is scheduled on Wednesday morning.