Seraphim to buy back stock
July 17, 2023
By Chris Forrester
UK-based Seraphim Space says it will buy back some of its own shares. It also says that 11 of the companies it has invested in have completed their fund-raising rounds.
Seraphim hasn’t said how big its buy-back will be except to say that it wouldn’t use all of its current permission to buy back up to 14.99 per cent of the business.
The majority of these investment rounds were led by new external investors, with Seraphim Space participating in two-thirds of the rounds.
“Overall, there are strong signs of a potential recovery from the pullback of 2022, with the amount of investment H123 exceeding the year before,” states Seraphim. “Each of the last three quarters has set all-time records for the highest total number of SpaceTech deals. This shows that while mega-rounds have reduced from the highs of 2021, the overall startup activity and later-stage funding within SpaceTech is higher than ever before.”
Seraphim added:
· Following a fall in investment toward the end of 2022, Space Investment has returned in the US, and momentum continues in Europe, with deal numbers in Europe growing by 60 per cent over the twelve months between 2022 and 2023. Investment in Asia also rocketed by almost 80 per cent.
· In terms of the deal breakdown, nearly 16 per cent of European deals are now focused on late-stage series funding, with almost a quarter in North America (24 per cent) and 30 per cent of deals in Asia as the Space sector continues to grow and mature. As a result, the average deal size now is $17.3 million. Series C rounds have also seen a notable uptick.
· Activity also remains strong, particularly at the early stages, with the number of Seed deals growing almost 55 per cent increase year on year.
· What we are seeing is a greater concentration of capital this quarter, with the same amount of capital deployed in fewer, larger growth stage deals. This is an early indicator of a recovery in the growth-stage market with highest deal size (Astranis, $200 million) since Q3 23. As well as this, Q2 23 investment was approximately in line with the previous quarter ($1.2 billion vs $1.4 billion) and both H1 23 quarters exceeded H2 2022.
· The UK has had a strong year for space investing, with the third highest number of deals in the TTM period at 39, only behind the US with 165, and China with 64.
· In terms of investment, the UK also ranks 3rd globally with $311 million invested over the TTM period, behind the US ($2.2 billion invested), and China with ($388 million invested).