LOOKING AHEAD: The Launch Company’s acquisition by Voyager Space Holdings positions The Launch Company to grow and expand our capabilities, talent, and vision — all the while staying true to our Alaskan roots.
The Launch Company is pleased to announce the closing of our acquisition with Voyager Space Holdings on April 1, 2021. Voyager is a (you guessed it) holding company that scales profitable aerospace companies which come together to enable humanity’s most ambitious projects.
THIS IS HUGE NEWS FOR THE LAUNCH COMPANY, AS IT MEANS THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO ACCELERATE OUR MISSION, TAKE ON NEW CHALLENGES, AND ENSURE WE CONTINUE TO DO HARD THINGS WELL.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE LAUNCH COMPANY?
The short answer is that it means more opportunities for our clients, our team, and the company itself. Up to this point, we have been a bootstrapped startup with no outside investors. We self-funded our projects which, while a major badge of pride, often meant that we missed out on taking big swings in favor of conservative growth. It’s been an amazing journey to build hardware that’s flown on rockets, help develop launch pads on all three coasts, and start the prototyping of our multi-user launch site with AFWERX from our warehouse in Anchorage. By joining forces with Voyager, we can kick things up a notch and take on bigger projects — and more of them — to get where we’re going much faster.
WHY VOYAGER?
Nobody at Launch Co. has taken this step lightly. In looking for the right partner, we looked for a team that understood space and had a big vision for what could be done there. Further, they had to understand us and match our passion. We pride ourselves on our culture of doing hard things well: staying calm, being relentlessly curious, tackling challenges head-on, building an inclusive culture, and treating everyone with respect. Finding a partner that understands all of those things is no easy task.
Voyager got it from the first conversation. They are developing a dynamic portfolio of aerospace companies like ours. To date, Voyager has also acquired Altius Space Machines, Pioneer Astronautics, and announced its intent to acquire a majority stake in XO Markets and its largest subsidiary, Nanoracks. These companies coming together under the Voyager umbrella will enable the development of new technologies that take humanity further.
Even since we announced our intent to acquire The Launch Company late last year, we’ve seen the demand for launches increase dramatically and we are confident that this trend is going to continue. The Launch Company is perfectly positioned to support this tidal wave of launch needs and we are thrilled that we can now support the exciting work that they are doing to help next-generation space companies gain access to orbit faster, cheaper, and more reliably.
— MATTHEW KUTA, PRESIDENT AND COO OF VOYAGER SPACE HOLDINGS
WHAT ARE THE LARGER BENEFITS OF THIS ACQUISITION?
Voyager understands our commitment to our work, our culture, and the place we call home. Their goal is to acquire profitable, exceptionally talented, and growth-oriented companies. This acquisition means that we can accelerate our mission to create the “Third Wave of Space” by deploying the world’s first multi-user, mobile launch site designed to service the widest range of rockets, whether they launch from land, sea, or air.
To be clear, The Launch Company isn’t going anywhere. We are committed to developing the best hardware, launch support, and launch sites in the industry from our headquarters in Anchorage. The majority of our company’s employees were raised, went to school, or currently reside in Alaska. The Launch Company wouldn’t be what it is without Alaska and we plan to continue to be headquartered here while expanding our capabilities around the U.S. and the world.
Finally, we know that The Launch Company wouldn’t be successful without the support of our employees, families, partners, clients, and community here in Alaska.
WE OWE A HUGE ‘THANK YOU’ TO ALL OF YOU AND WE HOPE YOU’RE AS STOKED ABOUT THIS AS WE ARE. WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED.
