Relativity Space

Relativity Space designs and manufactures orbital launch vehicles for satellite operators. Tim Ellis (CEO) and Jordan Noone (CTO) founded the company in 2015, and it went through Y Combinator. Its first Form D, filed in 2016, lists a Seattle address; later filings move to Inglewood and then Long Beach, California, where the company is now headquartered. Relativity made its name with 3D printed Aeon engines and large printed structures. Its first rocket, the expendable Terran 1, launched once on March 23, 2023, failed to reach orbit, and was retired the next month. The company now builds Terran R, a heavy lift, partially reusable vehicle rated for 33,500 kg to low Earth orbit.

SEC Form D filings track the financing. The company reported $1.14 million sold in 2016 and $28.6 million in 2018. An October 2019 filing reported $132.9 million sold against a $140 million offering. In November 2020 Relativity announced a $500 million Series D at a $2.3 billion valuation, and its December 2020 Form D reports the full $500 million sold. In June 2021 Fidelity Investments led a $650 million round at a $4.2 billion valuation, which brought total funding to $1.335 billion; the September 2021 Form D reports $649,999,981 sold. Wikipedia lists the company's investors as Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, BOND, Coatue, Fidelity, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Capital, K5 Global, Mark Cuban, Playground Global, Social Capital, Tiger Global, Tribe Capital and Y Combinator. The EDGAR index also shows outside special purpose vehicles formed to buy Relativity shares, including K5 Global and Republic series.

In March 2025 former Google CEO Eric Schmidt replaced Ellis as CEO and took a controlling interest in the company. At that point Relativity had a contract backlog of more than $2.9 billion for Terran R, with customers including OneWeb, Intelsat, SES and Telesat. The company's monthly update for August 2026 reported that all 13 sea level Aeon R engines for the first flight had been handed to thrust structure integration, each rated at 269,000 pounds-force. The update also covered progress on the second stage tank and launch site construction at Cape Canaveral. Terran R's first launch is targeted for late 2026. The terms of the Schmidt transaction were not published, so no valuation after 2021 can be sourced.

For venture investors, Relativity shows both the capital demands of launch and how long it takes. Early seed and Series B investors bought in at single digit and double digit million round sizes. Growth investors such as Fidelity, BlackRock and Baillie Gifford came in at a $4.2 billion valuation, before the company had flown a rocket. A control investment by an individual has since replaced the plan of building an independent company to a public listing. Roughly a decade after founding, no investor has had a public liquidity event. Returns for the 2020 and 2021 cohorts depend on what Schmidt paid, and that price has not been disclosed.