Blue Origin seeks to raise $10B from external investors in first VC-led funding round
Jeff Bezos’s rocket company Blue Origin Enterprises LP is reportedly looking to raise money from outside investors for the first time in more than two decades.
The company is in talks to secure $10 billion from venture capitalists in a round that would value it at more than $130 billion, according to a report by the New York Times. It’s believed that Coatue Management will be the lead investor in the round with a commitment of $4 billion, while Bezos will contribute around $2 billion of his own funds. The remainder will be provided by a group of unnamed “large institutional investors,” the report added.
The proposed round has not come out of the blue. In May, Bezos told CNBC in an interview that Blue Origin was looking to raise money from outside investors for the first time since it was founded 25 years ago. Until now, the Amazon.com Inc. founder has self-funded the company entirely by himself after selling some of his shares in the online retail and public cloud infrastructure giant, which has grown to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.
“It’s a good time, actually, to start thinking about the future and bring on some other outside investors,” Bezos said in May.
