Today, StartEngine announced in an email that there is an upcoming opportunity to invest in SpaceX through their equity crowdfunding platform. We have more below.
What Is SpaceX?
SpaceX is a well-known aerospace company founded by Elon Musk.
Regardless of your views on Mr.Musk, SpaceX simply has an impressive resume of achievements dating all the way back to 2008. These include things like being the first private company to hit a variety of milestones with the International Space Station and testing the largest rocket in history.
These achievements didn’t come cheaply or easily. According to Crunchbase, the company has received almost $10B (yes, with a B) of funding to date.
While that’s a staggering amount, investors in the company may not mind. According to a report from CNBC the company’s current valuation may be around $150B. For context, that would make SpaceX the 80th largest company (roughly the same as Intel) – if they could hold that valuation in public markets.
What Is StartEngine?
StartEngine is one of the more well-known equity crowdfunding companies. These companies provide a platform for investors to purchase shares of private companies and startups under a certain set of SEC regulation (Reg CF, Reg A/A+, Reg D).
What’s The Catch?
There’s actually two and they’re both pretty big.
The first is that the offering is only available to accredited investors. That is going to greatly limit the number of people that can participate in this potential offering.
Second, this isn’t the typical fundraising campaign. SpaceX is not actually doing a “community round” through the platform. Instead, StartEngine intends to acquire shares from current SpaceX shareholders to offer to investors through an SPV-like structure.
Why Is This Significant?
A few reasons!
First, this might just be the largest company (by valuation) to ever be accessible through an equity crowdfunding platform.
Second, this is the first StartEngine Private offering that we are aware of. The announcement email also makes it clear that they intend to have more in the future as well. This likely means that StartEngine will be growing out their accredited-only offerings over the coming months.
These new offerings could pull in interest from larger investors. In turn, that may bring more large ticket investments and bigger raises to the platform. That will not only bolster StartEngine’s revenue, but will help to further increase the validity of equity crowdfunding as a place for serious fundraising.
We are very excited and curious to see what future Private offerings may be available on the platform. We’re also interested to see if these offerings will be supported on the new “Marketplace” secondary market.
How Do I Participate?
First, you need to be an accredited investor.
Start by going to the Investor Profile (hover over the person icon in the top right of the screen > Settings > Investor Profile on web). Under the “Overview” section, there is an “Accredited Investor” line with an arrow.
If you click that arrow, it will show another dialogue that will allow you to self-certify your accreditation status. You may need to update the information in the “Finance” heading before doing this.
Second, you need to reserve your shares.
Third, wait for StartEngine to notify you that the offering is available. Then finalize your investment and collect your shares!
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