Elon Musk's SpaceX Attracts Over $8M In Investment Pledge In Record Time On Crowdfunding Platform

Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has received strong interest from the public, who pledged over $8 million in funding within hours of floating a petition.

What Happened: Spaced Ventures, a crowdfunding platform for space startups, said it has received about $8.05 million in financing pledges from the public for SpaceX. The company set out with a target of $10 million, with $100 being the minimum amount.

How It Works: Spaced Ventures initially asks the public to make pledges to invest in SpaceX. When enough interest builds, it notifies SpaceX and turns those pledges into investments if the company raises it on the platform.

The “petition to raise” feature is a tool that allows Spaced Ventures to aggregate large pools of investor interest into a specific company, very often large, private companies, which don’t really think they need the public’s money, the company said.

This is a way to show there is so much interest and a great way for them to democratize access to space and open up an investment opportunity, it added.

The platform doesn’t charge carried interest or fees to investors and it is on a first-come-first-serve basis. The first petitioners will be notified first if and when the deal goes live.

See also: Elon Musk Applauds His SpaceX and Starlink Ventures Accomplishing These Feats

Why It’s Important: SpaceX is a spacecraft manufacturer, space launch provider, and satellite communications company founded by Musk in 2002. Reduction in the cost of space travel and colonization of Mars were the main premises on which the company was established.

The company recently raised $250 million by selling equity, a new filing by the company in early August showed. This reportedly took the total funding raised by the company in 2022 to $2 billion.

Following a funding round in May that raised about $1.5 billion, SpaceX’s valuation bumped up past $125 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Elon Musk reportedly told SpaceX employees in June that he doesn’t intend to take the company public until 2025 or later.