American aerospace company Firefly Aerospace stock increased by over 34% in price during its Nasdaq debut after the company’s shares were priced above the expected range. The company, which manufactures rockets and lunar landers, raised $868M in the IPO, with its shares closing at $60.35, valuing the company at roughly $8.5B.
Firefly became the third space technology company to go public this year. Its clients include Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, and the company also received $50M in investment from Northrop Grumman. Also, last month Firefly secured a $177M contract with NASA. Earlier this year, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landed on the moon as part of a NASA-funded mission. Firefly is also well known for its Alpha rocket.
Founded in 2014 as Firefly Space Systems, the company was purchased by Ukrainian entrepreneur Maksym Polyakov, who acquired and restructured the bankrupt aerospace company in 2017, maintaining close ties with Ukraine through Ukrainian engineers and partners in the space industry. The new company, Firefly Aerospace, initially used Ukrainian technologies. Polyakov originally owned 58% of the company before transferring his shares after national security concerns were raised by the US. Consequently, Polyakov transferred all his shares to the company’s CEO, Tom Markusic, for $1.