Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is looking to raise up to $200 million in a funding round that could value the satellite-launch business at around $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The fundraising comes as the British billionaire’s sprawling travel-to-finance empire and the wider commercial space industry have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Virgin Orbit said in August it had hired LionTree Advisors LLC and Perella Weinberg Partners LP to look at potential financial transactions. Mr. Branson is among a group of entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, who have helped kick-start an era of commercially led space exploration. While the satellite industry has historically been dominated by large vehicles launching large satellites, Virgin Orbit and several other rivals world-wide want to send smaller satellites into lower orbits, targeting civil, military and commercial customers at the lower end of the market.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 11, 2020 08:03 UTC