XCOR Aerospace develops the Lynx suborbital spacecraft to carry tourists and payloads on short suborbital trips. The company plans to conduct test flights of Lynx later this year and is focused on maturing a challenging wing design enabled by advances such as 3D-printed titanium parts and improved composite materials. XCOR has sold over 300 tickets for its suborbital flights, with more than 10% sold to mainland Chinese customers. Company representatives say recent capital will be used to finish Lynx, expand marketing and sales, and support the test program. XCOR will not be doing manufacturing in China despite the investor’s broader offering of Chinese manufacturing and market access to other portfolio companies. The team includes former COO Andrew Nelson in a consulting role and Col. Rick Searfoss as Chief Test Pilot, both cited positively in the article. XCOR Aerospace is a Mojave, California–based company focused on research, development, production and maintenance of reusable suborbital and orbital launch vehicles, rocket engines and propulsion systems. Led by founder and CEO Jeff Greason and COO Andrew Nelson, XCOR builds rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and rocket piston pumps for aerospace prime contractors and government customers. Its core product effort is the XCOR Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx family of vehicles serves research and scientific missions, private spaceflight and microsatellite launch (only on the Lynx Mark III). The company intends to use the $14.2m Series B proceeds to bring the Lynx suborbital spaceplane to market and is creating an R&D center in Midland, Texas and an operational and manufacturing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A smaller second closing of the financing is scheduled over the summer. XCOR Aerospace, based in Mojave, California, develops and produces reusable rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies. The company is building the Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx family of vehicles is intended for research and scientific missions, private spaceflight, and microsatellite launch (the latter only on the Lynx Mark III). XCOR works with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems while concurrently producing the Lynx. The recently closed $5M funding round is intended to fund the company through production of its Lynx Mark I suborbital vehicle. The board was reformulated after the financing to include Esther Dyson, Stephen Fleming, Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong. The company was founded by CEO Jeff Greason and COO Andrew Nelson. XCOR Aerospace is a privately funded California corporation developing safe, reliable and reusable rocket engines and rocket-powered vehicles. The company recently secured $187,500 in equity financing to support development of rocket engine pump technology. That investment qualifies XCOR for a Department of Defense program that matches private capital four to one, up to $750,000. XCOR plans to use the funds to continue work on the rocket engine pump, a critical component for a reusable suborbital vehicle. The company is pursuing a combination of government contracts and additional private investment to advance a suborbital vehicle for space tourism, microgravity research and microsatellite launches. XCOR is expanding operations and consolidating into a new 10,000 square foot facility on the Mojave Airport flight line in Mojave, California.

Total raised

$24M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2015