VC Khosla has invested $ 28 million in Rocket Lab worth $ 1.7 billion

Khosla Ventures, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla, made several initial bets on the Rocket Lab that pay heavily now that the space company is public.

VC invested $ 28.2 million in several rounds of Rocket Lab funding between 2013 and 2020, according to a disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Khosla now owns just over 115 million shares of the common stock. of Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab’s closing price of $ 14.50 per share on Tuesday, Khosla’s stake is worth $ 1.67 million.

Shares of Rocket Lab have risen more than 40% since the company closed its SPAC merger and debuted on the Nasdaq on August 25th.

Khosla is about to benefit even more if Rocket Lab shares continue to rise: a clause in its Rocket Lab investment entitles Khosla to an addition of 9.3 million shares if the closing price of the shares is equal to or greater than $ 20 per share for at least 20 days between November. February 23 and 21.

The venture capital firm is among several investors who will benefit from a large number of space companies that will be listed on the stock exchange this year. Six space companies have closed SPAC offerings so far in 2021 – Rocket Lab, AST & Science, Astra, Spire Global, Momentus and Redwire – and several more are expected to be made public later this year, with ongoing BlackSky business , Satellogic and Planet. The first space company of this latest generation to be made public through an SPAC was Virgin Galactic and founder Sir Richard Branson has benefited by selling more than $ 950 million from the company’s shares in sales .