A SpaceX rival backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Salesforce's Marc Benioff plans to go public via SPAC
- Space start-up Astra plans to go public via a blank-check company merger in the second quarter of 2021.
- It aims to list on the NASDAQ under "ASTR" upon completion of the deal, Astra's CEO told CNBC.
- The deal would value Astra at $2.1 billion.
Astra, a rocket builder start-up, is merging with special-acquisition company Holicity to go public in the second quarter this year, according to CNBC.
The 4-year-old Californian company is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Salesforce's Marc Benioff.
Astra expects to raise $500 million through the SPAC deal, including $300 million from Holicity and $200 million in a PIPE round from BlackRock, taking its enterprise value to $2.1 billion.
Shares in Holicity's SPAC, which trades under "HOL," jumped nearly 40% on the news, to around $14.26 a share.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, after which Astra aims to list on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ASTR."
"We're seeing hundreds of companies that want to get from anywhere on Earth to anywhere in space on their schedule - not wait years to get a lot of things to one place," Astra CEO Chris Kemp told CNBC's "Squawk Box. "So we're really focused on building a much smaller rocket, produced in much higher volume, launched from a much larger number of locations."
Astra has already raised about $100 million from Advance Venture Partners, ACME Capital, Airbus Ventures, Canaan Partners, and Marc Benioff, according to CNBC. The company counts Elon Musk's SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Rocket Labs among its main competitors.
Offering low-cost small rockets, the company plans to begin sending satellites into low earth orbit later in 2021, according to the FT. "We'll be launching monthly in late 2021, weekly by 2023, biweekly in 2024, daily by 2025," Kemp told the newspaper.
Astra's first rocket reached space from Alaska in December, making it the latest private company to do so.
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