Vy Capital holds SpaceX shares worth about $40 billion, representing roughly 3.4% of the company, according to a Financial Times report cited by BlockBeats on Sept. 13. Bloomberg data shows the firm has become SpaceX’s fifth-largest shareholder, with a disclosed stake larger than those of Silicon Valley venture firms including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
SpaceX stake and valuation growth
Vy Capital first invested in SpaceX in 2016, when the company was valued at about $15 billion. After SpaceX listed this year at an estimated $1.75 trillion valuation, the value of Vy Capital’s holding increased sharply.
The firm is also the largest external investor in Elon Musk’s tunnel company The Boring Company and brain-computer interface company Neuralink. It also pledged $700 million to Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter.
John Hering’s ties to Musk companies
John Hering, who leads the firm, has close ties with Musk. Shortly after the Falcon 9 launch failure in 2016, he still invested more than $100 million in SpaceX. Since 2019, he has also been involved in Starlink’s early business buildout, including recruiting staff and building financial models, and at one point held a SpaceX employee badge.
Hering now serves as a director of The Boring Company, and Vy Capital also took part in the company’s recent $3 billion fundraising round.
Assets under management and investor returns
Vy Capital’s assets under management rose from $27 billion at the end of last year to $50 billion in June. In a letter to investors, the firm said it has posted a 41% gross internal rate of return since its founding in 2014 and has distributed $4.6 billion to investors.
Vy Capital said that if its investment thesis plays out, SpaceX could be valued at more than $10 trillion over the next five to seven years. The firm currently has only a few dozen employees, its core investment team consists of four people, and it stopped accepting outside investors last year.