In a merger of two popular Wall Street trends, space industry company Momentus is set to go public through a deal with the special purpose acquisition (SPAC) company Stable Road Capital (NASDAQ: SRACU). The two anticipate the new public company to debut on the Nasdaq in the first quarter of 2021.
For now, Stable Road will be used to raise the funds needed to acquire the private space firm. This type of public listing is becoming increasingly popular in 2020 as companies dodge the long and usually costly initial public offering process by debuting through a blank check company, or a publicly listed company that has no operations. This method of going public has been used recently by companies like Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE), Asana (NYSE: ASAN), DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) and Palantir (NYSE: PLTR).
As a company, Momentus looks to be a promising investment for investors looking to dip their toe in the rapidly growing private space sector, especially given its partnership with SpaceX. Rather than launching rockets, however, Momentus specializes in "last-mile delivery." Last-mile delivery refers to the actual deployment of a payload into orbit, requiring a series of calculated maneuvers to place a payload into a desired orbit safely. Momentus specializes in launch vehicles that would be capable of carrying multiple payloads at once, "[acting] as a shared ride to reduce the overall cost to orbit for individual spacecraft," according to a model released by the company.
"Our mission is to provide the infrastructure services that support all industry beyond Earth. The technologies we've developed or built upon, including our groundbreaking water plasma propulsion, will support growing demand from the booming satellite industry with affordable, versatile and low-risk transportation and infrastructure services across private companies, government agencies, and research organizations," said Momentus Founder and CEO Mikhail Kokovich in a press release.
After its merger with Stable Road, Momentus is expected to be valued at $1.2 billion. Momentus is hoping to become cash flow positive by 2023.