Firefly Aerospace rings the opening bell on the Nasdaq on Aug. seventh, 2025.
The Nasdaq
Firefly Aerospace jumped greater than 50% in its Nasdaq debut on Thursday after pricing shares above its anticipated vary.
Shares began buying and selling at $70 every underneath the ticker image FLY. The preliminary worth values the corporate at near $10 billion. The shares ticked decrease after the open.
Space technology has gained momentum in recent times as corporations reminiscent of Elon Musk‘s SpaceX amass extra funding and authorities contracts. Firefly is the third area firm to go public this 12 months after Voyager Technology and Karman Holdings.
The rocket and lunar lander maker priced shares late Wednesday at $45, above its anticipated vary of $41 to $43, elevating $868 million. Earlier this week, Firefly had hiked its vary up from the $35 to $39 it initially anticipated.
Firefly’s clients have included a rising checklist of key defense contractors reminiscent of Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, and the corporate not too long ago acquired a $50 million from Northrop Grumman. Final month, Firefly additionally received a $177 million contract with NASA.
“It is all about execution,” CEO Jason Kim instructed CNBC’s “Squawk Field” on Thursday. “We’re centered on score up our alpha rockets as a result of there’s a lot demand for the response of devoted one-ton launches from nationwide safety, business, in addition to hypersonic missile testing.”
Earlier this 12 months, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander efficiently touched down on the moon in a mission funded by NASA. Firefly can also be extensively recognized for its Alpha rocket and has mentioned in its IPO submitting that its backlog totaled about $1.1 billion on the finish of March.
In its IPO submitting, Firefly mentioned income within the visitors quarter jumped sixfold to $55.9 million from $8.3 million. Nevertheless, the corporate reported a internet lack of about $60.1 million, up from $52.8 million within the year-ago interval.
Past simply area, the tech IPO market has began to warmth up this 12 months after an prolonged dry spell resulting from excessive inflation and rising rates of interest. Figma, Circle and CoreWeave have all debuted in 2025 and seen their shares pop.
Protection and aerospace non-public fairness agency AE Industrial Companions owns a greater than 41% stake in Firefly and controls the corporate, based on the prospectus. Of Firefly’s 9 board members, 5 presently work on the agency. AE has $6.4 billion belongings underneath administration, based on its website.
