Like many extremely valued startups, SpaceX typically permits its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling to company-authorized exterior traders.
TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an inside SpaceX doc about such a young provide from Might 2022. Musk posted on X final month that SpaceX holds such gross sales for workers about each 6 months.
These paperwork provide attention-grabbing insights into the traders who’re licensed to purchase these secondary shares, and the great offers they get.
On this provide, traders paid $70 per share to staff, the doc reveals. That’s an unlimited cut price in comparison with the share costs traders pay when investing in major rounds — the place the corporate sells the shares immediately to boost capital.
Through the major sale in 2022, shares went for $270. (SpaceX hasn’t bought shares in a major spherical at a $70 value since its Sequence G went for $77.46 per share, the paperwork say. That was again in 2015, in keeping with PitchBook.)
In fact, the primary purpose for the large low cost in value is that employees own common stock and traders who purchase into major rounds usually purchase most well-liked inventory that entitles them to dividends and liquidation preferences. They’re the primary to be paid their funding again if the corporate ever sells itself.
In reality, this doc reveals that as of 2022, if SpaceX bought itself, the primary $6.67 billion can be owed to most well-liked shareholders. Since then, the corporate has raised another $750 million, in order that sum first paid to traders ought to possible be elevated by at the very least that quantity. Ought to SpaceX truly command its astronomical present valuation of $350 billion, these liquidation preferences — paying out traders first — received’t be an issue for workers or different frequent inventory shareholders. But when sooner or later the corporate goes for an under-$7 billion hearth sale, frequent stockholders may get nothing.
When it comes to the dividends, as late as 2019, inside paperwork seen by TechCrunch stated that SpaceX by no means paid any. But when its board of administrators wished to declare dividends, they’d be paid out in fastened quantities based mostly on when traders purchased shares. These quantities vary from a couple of pennies per share for shares purchased in its earliest and least expensive rounds, to over $10 a share for these purchased in later and most costly rounds.
For workers, the information about their shares in 2022 was particularly good. In February 2022, SpaceX did a 10-for-1 inventory cut up of its Class A, B and C frequent shares. The popular shares weren’t cut up. The paperwork don’t clarify what the variations are between the completely different courses of frequent shares. In public corporations, completely different courses typically have completely different voting rights. For instance, one class of shares retained by the founder might need 10 votes per share, permitting founders to retain management of their corporations whereas promoting shares and cashing out.
On this case, it’s not clear when, if ever, SpaceX will go public. Secondary gross sales like this stay one of many solely ways in which staff should promote their shares.
One other bit of excellent information for workers on this sale was that the $70 per share value was an enchancment over the earlier tender of $56 when adjusting for the inventory cut up, Bloomberg reported at the time. And Bloomberg also reported final month that the subsequent tender provide could also be as excessive as $108 to $110 apiece.
Which traders acquired to purchase?
One of the attention-grabbing revelations in these paperwork was that solely a handful of traders had been named as licensed consumers. And most of them had been among the many SpaceX orbit, so to talk, which means the traders are both vocal supporters of SpaceX founder Elon Musk or have had different, traditionally shut ties.
They had been:
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) was licensed to purchase practically 4.3 million shares for nearly $300 million. Curiously, a16z isn’t a historic longtime main investor in SpaceX however managed to get on its cap desk in an enormous approach within the firm’s $250 million raise in August, 2022, in keeping with PitchBook. It additionally grew to become a lead investor of SpaceX’s $750 million spherical, at a $137 billion valuation in 2023, CNBC reported.
The agency’s co-founder, Marc Andreessen, has identified Musk for the a long time that they’ve run in the identical Silicon Valley tech billionaire circles. Previously few years, he has develop into a Musk champion, expressing admiration for the SpaceX, Tesla, and X CEO in all types of how, from how Musk uses his money to keep launching startups to applauding Musk’s perseverance. Andreessen even publicly debated billionaire and rival VC Vinod Khosla (backer of OpenAI) on X (owned by Musk) after Khosla praised OpenAI shortly after Musk sued OpenAI. The talk caught Musk’s consideration.
Aliya Capital Companions is related to Aliya Progress Fund, which was licensed to purchase simply over 1.4 million shares for practically $100 million. Aliya is a household workplace for the rich in Miami that says SpaceX is certainly one of its largest holdings. Aliya — which has stakes in lots of prized startups like Determine AI, Not possible Meals, Anduril — notably chipped in $360 million when Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, Reuters reported. Even after Musk took a direct ax to Twitter headcount, and his management style caused others (and advertisers) to flee, Aliya remained publicly optimistic. “We imagine Twitter will produce a return of 4-5x in only a few years, with comparably restricted draw back danger,” Aliya chief govt Ross Kestin instructed Reuters in December 2022.
Aliya additionally fortunately champions SpaceX. In April, across the time that Bloomberg reported that its Starlink satellite enterprise continues to be burning extra cash than it brings in, Aliya took to LinkedIn to double down on Musk’s imaginative and prescient. It posted: “Current reviews point out a staggering 500,000 new Starlink subscribers within the final 4 months — a feat removed from coincidental — and over 2.7 million in whole. It stands as a testomony to profound imaginative and prescient matched by impeccable execution.”
Gigafund, whose co-founder is a SpaceX board member, was allotted over 1.4 million shares at a price of practically $100 million. Gigafund was co-founded by fellow PayPal mafia member Luke Nosek who joined Peter Thiel when he based Founders Fund. Thiel and Musk are, in fact, fellow PayPal mafia members. At Founders Fund, Nosek led the primary VC funding into Area X, took a board seat, and has been on the board ever since. He left Founders Fund in 2017 to launch Gigafund. Gigafund’s co-founder, Stephen Oskoui, can be a former Founders Fund investor and has led the agency into offers with different Musk corporations, together with Neuralink and the Boring Firm.
137 Ventures is related to 137 Holdings, which was licensed to purchase slightly below 1.1 million shares at a price of practically $75 million. 137 Ventures is a VC fund that’s attention-grabbing as a result of its claim to fame is these kinds of secondary purchases. Founders Justin Fishner-Wolfson and Alex Jacobson met whereas at Founders Fund, engaged on its SpaceX funding. When Musk initially lobbied Thiel and Founders Fund to again his new rocket firm on the time, the unique funding in SpaceX was going to be round $5 million till Fishner-Wolfson advocated that or not it’s a lot larger. Founders Fund wound up writing a check that was about 20% of its fund and has continued to take massive positions in different SpaceX rounds from different funds, Fishner-Wolfson instructed TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos in 2020. He launched 137 Ventures in 2011.
Level 2 Show Funding was allotted 1 million shares, which value $70 million. Level 2 Show seems to be like a particular goal automobile led by the secretive international funding agency Vy Capital, in keeping with SEC Form D from July 2022. Vy was based by Alexander Tamas, who spent his childhood at Yuri Milner’s DST. Whereas Tamas doesn’t say a lot in public, and due to this fact isn’t a vocal Musk supporter, his firm dedicated $700 million to Musk’s Twitter buy, Bloomberg reported at the time. Vy additionally has a SpaceX stake and has invested in a variety of different Musk corporations like Boring and Neuralink. A prospectus for a Vy fund asserts that Tamas was the investor who secured for DST its early stakes in corporations like Fb, Airbnb, Spotify, Twitter, Alibaba and others. Marc Andreessen and his VC agency co-founder Ben Horowitz as soon as described Tamas to Bloomberg as: “He’s on speed-dial for everybody making an attempt to construct probably the most profitable, highest-scale, international Web corporations at this time.”
Atreides Administration is related to Atreides Particular Circumstances Fund, which was allotted practically 429,000 shares at a price of practically $30 million. The founding father of Boston-based hedge fund Atreides, Gavin Baker, goes approach again with SpaceX. Earlier than founding Atreides in January 2019, Gavin spent 18 years at Constancy, rising to handle the $17 billion Constancy OTC Fund, his website says. He made his first funding in SpaceX whereas at Constancy, and in 2022 SpaceX was Atreides’ largest place among the many VC portion of its fund, Bloomberg reported. (Atreides had $3 billion in belongings underneath administration that yr however at present has about $4 billion AUM, in keeping with a recent SEC filing.) The fund has additionally had a big stake in Tesla since 2019. And Baker is a public supporter of Musk. Simply this month he penned a long post on X advocating to reinstate Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package and backing Musk’s want to maneuver Tesla’s incorporation to Texas.
TCP Exploration Fund 2022 was allotted over 357,000 shares for practically $25 million. This can be a fund related to LA’s Troy Capital Companions based by Myspace founder Josh Berman, according to SEC Form D. Nonetheless, by several accounts, Troy’s managing companion, Anthony Tucker, is the one accountable for Troy’s SpaceX funding. Troy has been a backer since SpaceX’s Sequence J spherical in 2019, which valued the corporate at about $28 billion post-money, in keeping with PitchBook. Troy, which emphasizes LA-based corporations (though doesn’t limit itself to them), was additionally an investor within the now-defunct Hyperloop One which had hoped to construct speedy underground transport between San Francisco and LA based mostly on Musk’s concept.
As well as, this SpaceX sale additionally licensed two extra traders to purchase about one other $50 million shares mixed as nicely, though the paperwork path was too skinny on each of them for us to find out their associations to Musk.
SpaceX and all the funds didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark apart from Atreides, which declined remark.
Replace: This story initially revealed June 19, 2024, and was up to date January 1, 2025, to incorporate SpaceX’s newest valuation.
