Having just raised 2.5 billion yuan in financing, this unicorn has launched its IPO.
Another IPO has emerged in the commercial space industry.
On October 22, Beijing Galaxy Power Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Galaxy Power") officially launched its listing guidance, with Huatai United Securities Co., Ltd. serving as the guidance institution.
Source: Announcement of the China Securities Regulatory Commission
Notably, just in September of this year, Galaxy Power completed a Series D financing round of 2.4 billion yuan, with more than a dozen shareholders, including Nanjing Venture Capital Group, Sichuan Industrial Fund, Bank of Communications Investment, Yizhuang State - owned Investment, Plum Ventures, and Gaoxin Capital, jointly participating.
Considering that Galaxy Power has raised more than 5.3 billion yuan in total over the seven years since its establishment, and nearly half of this amount was raised in September this year, it seems that VC firms are flocking in before the IPO.
Meanwhile, as a new entrant aiming for the secondary market after commercial space unicorns such as Landspace, Yixin Aerospace, and CAS Space, Galaxy Power also has an impressive background.
Its helmsman, Liu Baiqi, is not only a doctor from Beihang University but also a "rocket enthusiast" who came from the state - owned system.
He once shouted, "We should blaze our own trail. There's no need to benchmark against SpaceX, nor do we need to be the Chinese Elon Musk." With a focus on extreme cost - effectiveness, he led Galaxy Power to break through market barriers and thus earned the label of "price butcher".
Now, as leading players in the commercial space industry are accelerating their IPO processes, Galaxy Power is naturally moving towards the secondary market.
A 70s - born Beihang doctor as the "price butcher", raking in 5.3 billion in 7 years
Liu Baiqi was born in 1978 and graduated from Beihang University, majoring in aircraft design.
Seven years after obtaining his doctorate, he joined the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the cradle of Long March rockets, as a chief designer.
On the front line, he spent more than a decade working with the blueprints and data of Long March rockets.
In 2015, private rocket startups in China began to sprout. A number of private rocket companies, including Landspace and OneSpace, were established. Encouraged by policies, many aerospace technology talents left the state - owned system and joined the entrepreneurial wave.
Amidst this trend, facing numerous offers, Liu Baiqi felt an urge to leave the state - owned system.
However, he didn't act immediately but first observed calmly.
The rocket industry is characterized by high thresholds, high investment, high risks, and long payback periods. For example, SpaceX was founded in 2002, but its Falcon 9 rocket didn't make its maiden flight until 2010.
Against this backdrop, Liu Baiqi was convinced that aerospace experts entering the commercial space industry must adopt an industrial mindset to break the deadlock.
That is, they need to understand market demand before building rockets and find a way to form a commercial closed - loop at the initial stage.
Therefore, before founding Galaxy Power, Liu Baiqi and several partners conducted a three - year market research. After determining the survival strategy of "starting small and growing through self - sufficiency", they officially started their business in 2018.
Specifically, Galaxy Power developed relatively mature small solid rockets with less investment to provide launch services for scattered small satellites, thus achieving self - sufficiency through the launch services of the "Ceres" series of small solid launch vehicles.
Then, it developed highly reliable, reusable, low - cost, and high - capacity liquid rockets to address the pain points of high launch costs and insufficient carrying capacity in the aerospace industry, namely the launch services of the "Pallas" series of medium - sized reusable liquid launch vehicles.
In 2020, Galaxy Power's self - developed "Ceres - 1" made a successful maiden flight, marking the first time a Chinese private enterprise sent a commercial satellite into a 500 - kilometer sun - synchronous orbit.
The successful launch of the relatively mature solid rocket "Ceres - 1" allowed Galaxy Power to break into the commercial space market with extreme cost - effectiveness, earning it the label of "price butcher".
Public information shows that the single - launch cost of "Ceres - 1" is kept below 30 million yuan, only 60% of similar international products.
As of now, Galaxy Power's "Ceres - 1" has completed 20 rocket launches, sending a total of 85 satellites into space for 27 commercial satellite customers. Thus, it has become the private commercial launch vehicle with the most launches and the most successful launches in China.
But Liu Baiqi's vision extends further. After achieving self - sufficiency, the reusable liquid rocket, the "Noah's Ark" to large - scale commercial space and truly lowering the threshold for entering space, set sail.
Galaxy Power is concentrating its efforts on developing a new generation of reusable medium - and large - sized liquid launch vehicles to meet the needs of mega - constellation networking, deep - space exploration, and commercial manned missions.
In September, the company announced that the second - stage power system test of the Pallas - 1 launch vehicle was recently carried out at Galaxy Power's Aerospace Propulsion Test Center, and the test was a complete success. It is reported that Pallas - 1 is one of the first domestic reusable liquid launch vehicles to be launched at the orbital level.
The successful test means that the Pallas - 1 rocket has sounded the clarion call for a successful maiden flight.
Thus, through the "Ceres" and "Pallas" series of rockets, Galaxy Power has built a full product spectrum with a carrying capacity ranging from 300 kg to 58 tons.
Of course, Galaxy Power's rapid development would not have been possible without the support of capital.
According to Tianyancha, in the same year it was founded, Galaxy Power received a 20 - million - yuan seed - round investment from Yuanhang Capital, Fenghou Capital, and Beihang Investment. The following year, it raised funds in two consecutive rounds, attracting well - known VCs in the primary market such as Puhua Capital, Anfulan Capital, and Plum Ventures.
After that, the company received 1.27 billion yuan and 1.1 billion yuan in financing in 2022 and 2023 respectively, accelerating the R & D of the reusable liquid launch vehicle technology of Pallas - 1 and the construction of related production, testing, and launch facilities.
Just before the IPO guidance, Galaxy Power raised more than 2.5 billion yuan in two rounds within a month, indicating the primary market's optimism about this VC favorite.
As of now, Galaxy Power has completed 10 rounds of financing, with an incomplete total of over 5.34 billion yuan.
According to the guidance announcement, Liu Baiqi and the company's president, Liu Jianshe, are persons acting in concert. They directly hold and indirectly control 32.36% of the shares and are the company's joint actual controllers.
Leading players in the commercial space industry are racing towards IPOs
Looking at Galaxy Power's IPO move, it can be seen that the commercial space industry has started to "accelerate".
Here, favorable policies have played an important role.
In June this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Opinions on Setting up a Growth Layer for Science and Technology Innovation on the STAR Market to Enhance the Inclusiveness and Adaptability of the System", which mentioned expanding the scope of application of the fifth set of standards. According to industrial development and market demand, it supports enterprises in more cutting - edge technology fields such as artificial intelligence, commercial space, and low - altitude economy to apply the fifth set of listing standards on the STAR Market, increasing support for emerging and future industries.
While the capital market is releasing policy dividends, the policy system at the industry level of commercial space is also constantly improving.
In July, the National Space Administration issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Quality Supervision and Management of Commercial Space Projects", which clearly stated that relevant national departments are responsible for guiding the quality supervision and management of commercial space projects, formulating relevant policies, standards, and norms for the quality supervision and management of commercial space projects, and improving the system and mechanism for the quality supervision and management of commercial space projects.
Meanwhile, many provinces have introduced measures to support the development of the commercial space industry. Policies such as the "Several Policy Measures for Promoting the High - quality Development of Commercial Space in Guangdong Province (2025 - 2028)" and the "Several Measures for Accelerating the High - quality Development of the Commercial Space Industry in Shandong Province" have been successively introduced.
In addition, in the second half of this year, Tianlong - 3, Landspace, and CAS Space respectively announced the successful static ignition of their first - stage rockets and were short - listed for the tender of Yuanxin Satellite's Qianfan Constellation. As long as they complete their maiden flights within this year, they can sign a launch contract.
Recently, commercial rocket companies such as Galaxy Power, iSpace, and Dongfang Space have either successfully completed or are about to execute rocket launch missions.
All these factors, from policies to the market, have brought leading private rocket players into the spotlight of capital.
The primary market has responded quickly, trying to "occupy a position" at the IPO gate before the inflection point of large - scale commercialization of large liquid rockets arrives.
Source: Lieyunwang
On September 18, after completing a Series D financing of hundreds of millions of yuan in March, iSpace officially announced the completion of a 700 - million - yuan Series D+ financing; on September 28, Galaxy Power completed a 2.4 - billion - yuan Series D financing; on October 9, Tianbing Technology announced a nearly 2.5 - billion - yuan Series D financing.
In just one month, leading private rocket companies raised more than 5.7 billion yuan, continuously setting new records for the largest single - round financing amount this year.
Among them, Tianbing Technology and Galaxy Power launched their listing guidance on October 17 and October 22 respectively, less than a month after their latest rounds of financing.
Previously, on July 25, August 1, and August 12, Landspace, Yixin Aerospace, and CAS Space successively launched their listing guidance. In September, Weina Xingkong launched its IPO, meaning that in the past three months, six new leading players in the commercial space industry have joined the race for IPOs.
According to publicly disclosed information, currently, the private rocket companies with the highest valuations in China are Tianbing Technology and Landspace, with valuations of 22.5 billion and 22 billion yuan respectively; Galaxy Power, iSpace, and CAS Space are in the second echelon, with valuations of about 15 billion yuan; Dongfang Space is valued at 12 billion yuan.
As early as the end of 2020, iSpace launched the filing for listing guidance and disclosed the progress report of the listing guidance work in July 2025; in March 2022, Changguang Satellite also launched the filing for listing guidance, but the company terminated its IPO process at the end of 2024.
In addition, in June this year, Aisida Aerospace Technology launched the filing for listing guidance; Dongfang Space has signaled its intention to sprint for the STAR Market next year.
With one hand on commercialization and the other on IPOs, a new competition in the commercial space industry is about to kick off.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Lieyun Selection", author: Sun Yuan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.