Shares of Firefly Aerospace rose just over 50% in first-day trading Thursday, demonstrating hearty investor appetite for a new opportunity in spacetech.
The Cedar Park, Texas-based company, which offers launch, land and in-space services for national security and commercial customers, raised $868 million in the offering. It priced shares late Wednesday at $45 each, above the already-raised projected range. The company is trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FLY.
The IPO follows a string of well-received venture-backed debuts, including last week’s blockbuster market entry by design software provider Figma, which saw shares triple in first-day trading.
For Firefly, meanwhile, investors aren’t flocking to buy for profitability. The 11-year-old company posted a net loss of $231 million in 2024 and $60 million in the first quarter of this year, per its IPO prospectus.
However, it is seeing growing revenue. In Q1 2025, revenue totaled $55.9 million, up from just $8.3 million in the same period a year earlier. That said, it should be noted that revenue recognition can be complex for Firefly’s sector, which is reliant on multiyear contracts that may be announced some time before they are paid out.
Firefly’s IPO comes amid a relatively robust period for investment in spacetech startups, with multiple rounds above $100 million closing this year. Investors are particularly bullish about opportunities at the intersection of spacetech and AI.
For its part, Firefly raised close to $700 million in equity funding over the years. Its largest stakeholder is AE Industrial Partners, with 47% of pre-IPO shares, per Firefly’s prospectus.
In addition to rising share prices, the current IPO market is characterized by high valuations being minted. While Figma shares have fallen some in recent days, for instance, it’s still valued at over $40 billion.
Another mega-debut came from AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave, with a recent market cap around $57 billion. Shares of the New Jersey company have also more than doubled since its April IPO. The strongest performer among big IPOs, meanwhile, is Circle Internet Group, up more than 4x since its June market entry.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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