A new report from aerospace and defense consultancy The Tauri Group reveals more than 50 venture capital (VC) firms invested a staggering $1.8 billion in space startups in 2015.
Companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are highlighted as the leaders of this field. Musk obtained $500 million from Google last year while Bezos has funneled his own money into refining his reusable rocket company’s technology.
A key takeway from the study, though, is that VC firms no longer consider these fledgling firms a dangerous investment, according to Fortune. SpaceX had to deal with a number of rockets exploding before they were finally able to launch a number of satellites into orbit last December.
Financiers are starting to view these companies more as “traditional tech investments” because their focus shifted to the sheer amount of data they can provide. One example Fortune cites is that several satellites could hover in orbit and collect information after monitoring planetary activity. This could help companies learn something new about economic activity around the globe.
Ultimately, the commercial space flight industry took in $13.3 billion over 15 years, but last year’s investment eclipsed that figure.
You can read the rest of the report here.
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