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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005819

gettgo wins Best New Comparison Website in Thailand 2021 Award

gettgo, a comprehensive insurance comparison platform for the new generation, was awarded Best New Comparison Website in Thailand 2021 by The Global Economics, one of the UK’s leading financial publications.

gettgo, a comprehensive insurance comparison platform for the new generation, was awarded Best New Comparison Website in Thailand 2021 by The Global Economics, one of the UK’s leading financial publications. This accolade is part of the Annual Global Economics Awards program for the insurance sector, aiming to annually recognise insurance-related companies for their best business innovations and best value propositions.

Mr. Tanat Jakrawatana, Managing Director of gettgo, speaking on winning the award, expressed that, “gettgo is proudly and humbly accepting of this prestigious award. We are grateful for The Global Economics’ recognition of our efforts to deliver what’s best for the customers.

In my view, it is difficult to conclude who really is ‘the Best platform’, since gettgo doesn’t compete or compare in order to dominate the market. Our only goal is to put as much effort into understanding what is in the best interests of consumers when it comes to finding the right insurance on online platforms. This is what we have always been doing, and we are very proud that our hard work is being recognised and appreciated on a satisfying level today.”

Mr. Tanat further added information about features of gettgo’s platform which can well serve what consumers are actually looking for in 2021, when there is high demand to display insurance comparison results in a convenient and transparent method. Moreover, consumers want freedom to decide their own insurance choices that suit different lifestyles. Hence, purchasing insurance merely based on word of mouth from family members, friends or insurance brokers is no longer enough today.

gettgo offers an ample range of insurance products which are more than enough to assimilate on-demand services ranging from health insurance, Covid-19 insurance, car insurance, travel insurance and more. The platform utilises a very smart search engine to discover insurance suitability for every individual’s conditions i.e. the cost they feel comfortable with, or specific policies to fit different needs. With this, the customers can thoroughly compare insurance side by side through product details and coverage for both life and non-life insurance from over 20 leading companies.

This is only the beginning of what gettgo has offered to customers during the past 3 years. Behind the scenes, the platform never stops improving. It maximises all of its capabilities and manpower to gather customer databases in all aspects such as purchase history, reviews, comments, complaints, or any other social mentions regarding the brand in order to create, improve, and develop the products and the website continuously. These factors all make up the secret recipe for the best online insurance comparison website making it worth every penny for the consumers.

In Q4 this year continuing to 2022, gettgo is preparing to launch several exciting projects, namely:

• Collaboration with top life insurance companies to develop an exclusive end-to-end health insurance for Thais with lower purchasing power to suit the current economic circumstances. The platform sees the pain point where, although the ability to purchase is weaker, the demand for health-related protection is rising amidst the pandemic situation. It is timely for gettgo to provide the solution that helps people gain access to beneficial and worthwhile insurance as easily as possible.

• Collaboration with platforms for employees’ flexible benefits to present top-class, bite-size insurance policies distributed to corporate staff through point redemption systems. This exercises how gettgo, as an avid InsurTech innovator, applies technology to make insurance access as straightforward and convenient as any point-redeemable consumer goods seen nowadays.

Moreover, gettgo is continuing to develop the search recommendation engine for health insurance platform that was launched in 2020 to continue to make sure that the customers can find the best plans within their budget range. All in all, the projects above demonstrate gettgo’s direction and desire to make progress with innovations and technologies as an InsurTech company, so that choosing insurance products can truly become everyone’s simple task.

gettgo wins Best New Comparison Website in Thailand 2021 Award

About gettgo

gettgo is an online insurance comparison website founded in 2018 under Muang Thai Broker Co., Ltd. Its establishment is in line with the mission to create a platform to accommodate consumer behaviors in the digital age, with the need to compare products by themselves before deciding to purchase them online. Thus, gettgo wants to create the experience of comparison and online insurance purchases that are convenient and quick, with simple language and filtered and essential data, without forcing unnecessary coverage on users. In this regard, gettgo offers a selection of online insurance, including motor insurance, travel insurance, home insurance, and COVID insurance. Most recently, in the last quarter of 2020, gettgo has added health and life insurance products to respond to the increasing trends of health over the past few years.

Contact Corporate Communication Department

Mr. Chakrit Senkhao

Chakrit.se@gettgo.com

(+66) 65-965-3795

Published : September 07, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005813

Positive sentiment gives SET a boost

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 5.26 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 1,653.63 on Tuesday morning, witnessing a high of 1,655.30 and a low of 1,651.83 in opening trade.

The SET Index closed at 1,648.37 on Monday, down 1.96 points or 0.12 per cent. Transactions totalled THB78.32 billion with an index high of 1,655.04 and a low of 1,644.56.

Krungsri Securities forecast the index on Tuesday would fluctuate between 1,640 and 1,660 points despite reports that the government may suspend the emergency decree as domestic Covid-19 infections continue to decline.

It added that the index also gained positive sentiment after the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations reported that investor confidence index in the next three months had risen by 124.3 per cent to 144.37 points.

However, it advised investors to beware of mass sell-offs of shares in response to signs of overbought stocks and foreign funds outflows.

It also recommended buying of the following companies’ shares as an investment strategy:

▪︎ AOT, KBANK, BBL, CPN, CRC, HMPRO, AAV, BA, MINT, AMATA and WHA, which benefit from the country’s reopening.

▪︎ BANPU, LANNA, CKP, GPSC, GULF, BCPG, BCH, CHG, BDMS, KCE, TU and EPG, whose third-quarter profit is expected to rise.

Related stories:

• Baht expected to move sideways as investors await clarity on various issues
• Gold advances in opening trade
• SET down slightly amid signs of overbought stocks

Published : September 07, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005814

Gold advances in opening trade

The price of gold rose by THB50 in morning trade on Tuesday.

AGold Traders Association report at 9.25am said the buying price of a gold bar was THB28,000 per baht weight and selling price THB28,100, while gold ornaments cost THB27,500.24 and THB28,600, respectively.

At close on Monday, the buying price of a gold bar was THB27,950 per baht weight and selling price THB28,050, while gold ornaments cost THB27,439.60 and THB28,550, respectively.
 

Related news:

• Investments in EEC expected to help economy grow 5 per cent
• Thailand lures e-bike manufacturers with investment privileges
• Baht expected to move sideways as investors await clarity on various issues

Published : September 07, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005809

Baht expected to move sideways as investors await clarity on various issues

The baht opened at 32.50 to the US dollar on Tuesday, weakening from Monday’s closing rate of 32.45.

The Thai currency is likely to move between 32.40 and 32.55 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.

Poon predicted that the baht would drift sideways in the short term. Investors are waiting for many new factors, especially the Covid-19 situation in the country, which had led to many foreigners selling Thai assets — stocks and bonds.

Investors are waiting for the European Central Bank’s meeting, as it might signal a decrease in quantitive easing (QE), which will affect the currency. Currently, the trend of the euro and dollar are not clear yet.

Poon added that the International Monetary Fund is disbursing US$650 billion to help members under which Thailand will get $4.4 billion (THB130 billion) as special drawing rights. He said investors should speculate how the government and the Bank of Thailand would use the funds to support the economy and solve the Covid-19 situation.

Related News

Baht opens the week stronger against the dollar

Uncertainties loom despite the bahts recent gains

Lockdown easing, hopes of economic recovery likely to bolster baht

He recommended that investors use various hedging tools if they feel uncertain about the direction of the currency.

Published : September 07, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005785

SET down slightly amid signs of overbought stocks

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,648.37 on Monday, down 1.96 points or 0.12 per cent. Transactions totalled THB78.32 billion with an index high of 1,655.04 and a low of 1,644.56.

In the morning session, Krungsri Securities forecast Monday’s index would fluctuate between 1,640 and 1,660 points amid positive and negative sentiments.

It said the index gained positive sentiment from the government easing lockdown restrictions as domestic Covid-19 infections continued to decline. Also, the censure debate targeting government ministers had gone smoothly.

However, it advised investors to beware of mass sell-offs of shares in response to lower-than-expected US non-farm payrolls and signs of overbought stocks.

The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were BANPU, GULF, CPALL, DELTA, SCGP, U, ADVANC, SUPER, B and PTT.

Related stories:
Mixed sentiments pull SET down at the start of the week
Baht opens the week stronger against the dollar
Gold price rises in the morning trade

Other Asian indices were up with one exception:

Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 29,659.89, up 531.78 points or 1.83 per cent.

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,621.86, up 40.12 points or 1.12 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 14,546.60, up 366.74 points or 2.59 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 26,163.63, up 261.64 points or 1.01 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,203.33, up 2.27 points or 0.071 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,495.30, down 21.62 points or 0.12 per cent.

Published : September 06, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005768

Gold price rises in the morning trade

The price of gold rose by THB150 in morning trade on Monday.

AGold Traders Association report at 9.22am said the buying price of a gold bar was THB28,000 per baht weight and selling price THB28,100, while gold ornaments cost THB27,500.24 and THB28,600, respectively.

At close on Friday, the buying price of a gold bar was THB27,850 per baht weight and selling price THB27,950, while gold ornaments cost THB27,348.64 and THB28,450, respectively.

Related news:

• Baht opens the week stronger against the dollar
• BoI’s Asean investment framework gets Cabinet okay
• Investors are placing big bets on a growing space economy – but can they reach orbit?

Published : September 06, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005766

Mixed sentiments pull SET down at the start of the week

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell by 2.23 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 1,648.10 on Monday morning, witnessing a high of 1,655.04 and a low of 1,648.10 in opening trade.

The SET Index closed at 1,650.33 on Friday, up 2.58 points or 0.16 per cent. Transactions totalled THB78.70 billion with an index high of 1,657.79 and a low of 1,644.12.

Krungsri Securities forecast the index on Monday would fluctuate between 1,640 and 1,660 points amid positive and negative sentiments.

It said the index gained positive sentiment from the government easing lockdown, as domestic Covid-19 infections continued to decline. Also, the censure debate on government ministers had gone smoothly.

However, it advised investors to beware of mass sell-offs of shares in response to lower-than-expected US non-farm payrolls and signs of overbought stocks.

Related stories:

• Baht opens the week stronger against the dolla
• Gold price rises in the morning trade
• SET up slightly amid signs of global recovery

It also recommended the buying of the following companies’ shares as an investment strategy:

▪︎ AOT, KBANK, BBL, CPN, CRC, HMPRO, AAV, BA, MINT, AMATA and WHA, which benefit from the country’s reopening.

▪︎ BANPU, LANNA, CKP, GPSC, GULF, BCPG, BCH, CHG, BDMS, KCE, TU and EPG, whose third-quarter profit is expected to rise.

Published : September 06, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40005763

Baht opens the week stronger against the dollar

The baht opened at 32.46 to the US dollar on Monday, strengthening from last week’s closing rate of 32.62.

The Thai currency is likely to move between 32.35 and 32.55 during the day and between 32.25 and 32.75 this week, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.

Poon predicted that the baht would drift sideways in the short term. Foreign investors are keeping an eye on the Covid-19 situation in the country after the easing of lockdown measures, before adjusting their possession of Thai assets.

The dollar could be supported by the US Federal Reserve’s move to reduce quantitative easing (QE). The dollar weakened after US employment data was worse than expected.

If the European Central Bank signals to decrease QE, the euro will strengthen and weaken the dollar.

Related News

Uncertainties loom despite the bahts recent gains

Lockdown easing, hopes of economic recovery likely to bolster baht

Baht likely to strengthen after lockdown easing, but could weaken if new wave hits: market strategist

Poon added that the key resistance level of the baht was 32.80 to the dollar, which is the level at which exporters might sell the US currency.

Meanwhile the key support level of the baht was 32.80 to the US dollar, the level that some importers are waiting for to buy the dollar.

Published : September 06, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/business/40005747

Your food prices are at risk as the world runs short of workers

Across the world, a dearth of workers is shaking up food supply chains.

In Vietnam, the army is assisting with the rice harvest. In the U.K., farmers are dumping milk because there are no truckers to collect it. Brazil’s robusta coffee beans took 120 days to reap this year, rather than the usual 90. And American meatpackers are trying to lure new employees with Apple Watches while fast-food chains raise the prices of burgers and burritos.

Whether it’s fruit pickers, slaughterhouse workers, truckers, warehouse operators, chefs or waiters, the global food ecosystem is buckling due to a shortage of staff. Supplies are getting hit and some employers are forced to raise wages at a double-digit pace. That’s threatening to push food prices – already heated by soaring commodities and freight costs – even higher. Prices in August were up 33% from the same month last year, according to an index compiled by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

The coronavirus pandemic has helped spark a labor shortfall for many parts of the economy. But the impact is particularly stark in food and agriculture, which are among the world’s least-automated industries. Food security is a sensitive issue in many parts of the world and thin margins mean rising costs generally pass through to buyers, according to Boston Consulting Group.

“Almost certainly there is disruption,” said Decker Walker, BCG’s agribusiness expert in Chicago. Effects vary among locations and products, he said, but “the general theme seems to be: The roles with the least desirable working conditions are actually the ones that we have the most pain with.”

Your food prices are at risk as the world runs short of workers

There are signs the labor shortfall is curbing supplies. In the U.S., wholesale distributors like Sysco Corp. and United Natural Foods Inc. are reporting production delays and slowdowns for items ranging from bacon and cheese to coconut water and spices. In the U.K., some stores are running low on staples like bread and chicken, while McDonald’s Corp. ran out of milkshakes in August.

“We have family-wage, great jobs that have been open, that we’ve been recruiting really hard for and have had trouble filling,” said Patrick Criteser, chief executive officer of Tillamook County Creamery Association. The Oregon-based dairy co-operative recently ran so short of workers that a board member had to skip an operational meeting to help out in the fields. “With the inflation we’re seeing in the business and the inflation that we’re seeing at the farm level, it’s going to translate to the shelf.”

Shortages are hitting farms, processors and restaurants alike. Malaysia, the world’s No.2 palm oil producer, has lost about 30% of potential output of the edible oil used in everything from chocolate to margarine. Shrimp production in southern Vietnam – one of the world’s top exporters – has dropped by 60% to 70% from before the pandemic. And a fifth of tomato production in the south of Italy has been lost this year, due to the scorching heat and transport paralysis, according to the farmers’ association CIA.

“I have been in this business since the ’80s, but I have never seen a situation like this,” said Michele Ferrandino, a farmer in Foggia. “Tomatoes are very perishable goods. There were not enough trucks to transport the crop to the processing plants, in those crucial days” of the harvest, he said.

Your food prices are at risk as the world runs short of workers

Canceled or delayed deliveries have also forced British dairy farmers like Mike King in South Gloucestershire, England to dump milk while stores run short. King estimates he has lost some 20,000 liters (5,283 gallons), and says some farmers have resorted to milking their cattle less frequently due to staffing shortfalls.

Even as restaurants and other businesses re-open in the U.S. and parts of Europe – boosting demand for goods such as meat and bottled drinks – the delta variant is spreading in places like Southeast Asia, curbing primary production. Other, longer-established pandemic effects are still causing problems too: Covid outbreaks continue to crop up in meat- and fish-processing plants, forcing temporary closures, and border restrictions in countries from the U.K. to Thailand are limiting the supply of migrant workers.

In some places, the scramble for staff is compounded by local issues, such as difficult and dangerous farmwork conditions caused by a record U.S. heatwave, or the disruption of Brexit.

As a result, employers face another hurdle: Workers have plenty of options.

The current economy is creating “choice where choices may not have existed in the past,” said BCG’s Walker. When “the entire world is short-staffed,” filling less desirable jobs gets more difficult, he said.

Employment in the food supply chain can certainly be tough. Whether it’s backbreaking strawberry picking, insecure slaughterhouse work or the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of a restaurant kitchen, many jobs are physically taxing, short-term, poorly paid – or a combination of all three.

With more jobs available, Australian workers who might previously have settled for positions at meat processing plants in sparsely populated areas can opt for work in busier towns instead. Many of the European Union citizens who might typically travel to the U.K. to work on farms, in haulage or serving coffees are choosing to stay in their home countries or on the continent. American laborers who have struggled with sweltering heat in the fields may choose the cool interiors of a store instead.

Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, acknowledges that work such as fruit picking is demanding.

“It is a physical job,” he said. “You are picking fruit and carrying it up and down ladders, so if your alternative is pushing buttons on a cash register, that might be more appealing.”

Higher salaries and perks can sweeten the deal. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. recently raised U.S. menu prices by as much as 4% after increasing average pay to $15 an hour; in Canada the company is offering a referral bonus to help with recruitment. Pork-processing workers at Smithfield Foods in South Dakota get freebies like Apple Watches or iPads once they complete their first 60 days, a company official said. Pizza chain Rossopomodoro, which is headquartered in Europe, has been forced to boost its base pay by 50% in London, CEO Daniele di Martino said.

But often money is not enough. Workers are increasingly demanding greater protection from the coronavirus as well as higher wages, according to Sunny Verghese, CEO of agricultural trading giant Olam International Ltd.

While meatpackers have made significant safety progress since last year, they are up against the delta variant now. That has slowed the amount of cattle moving through slaughterhouses at meat giant Tyson Foods.

“We were on a good trajectory and then the delta variant showed up, and we’ve taken a step back as result of that,” CEO Donnie King said on a call with investors last month. “Essentially it takes six days to get five days’ worth of work.”

Worker shortfalls aren’t happening everywhere, and the effects aren’t evenly distributed. Much of mainland Europe has not felt the same crippling shortages as the U.K., where Brexit constrained the flow of EU workers. China has been largely unaffected and in India, while inflation is still a worry, labor is plentiful and agriculture has been mostly untouched by virus restrictions.

Elsewhere, labor is just one of several headaches for the world’s food ecosystem. Extreme weather from Brazil to France has affected harvests. Surging crop prices have pushed up the price of feeding livestock – and therefore the price of meat. Transport costs have skyrocketed due to soaring demand, container shortages and overwhelmed ports, not helped by the temporary partial closure of China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan, the world’s third-busiest cargo port.

Still, the shortage of workers threatens to further add to costs, whether through wage increases or supply shortfalls. And the issue won’t disappear when the pandemic ends: The share of workers employed in agriculture has been falling for decades amid a shift to cities and services sectors, and hiring for some jobs was tough long before Covid. These more permanent changes to the labor market call for technological solutions, and investment in automation and robotics has accelerated during the pandemic.

In the U.S., automated tractors, robotic milkers and machines such as carrot planters are replacing human labor. Meanwhile, U.K. farmers are trialling robots to pick strawberries, lettuce or broccoli. Harvesting tools have helped Brazil’s robusta-coffee farmers cut dependence on manual workers to one-fifth of the number needed just a few years ago, according to Edimilson Calegari, general manager at Espirito Santo-based cooperative Cooabriel. While the country’s labor shortfall extended the length of the harvest, he said, technology has lessened its impact.

Still, it will take years before farmers really take to robots, according to Cindy van Rijswick, a senior analyst at Rabobank in Utrecht who specializes in horticulture.

“In the end, prices for food have to go up to compensate workers in a better way and to find solutions,” van Rijswick said. “They just cost money and we need to be willing to pay that.”

Published : September 06, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/business/40005745

Investors are placing big bets on a growing space economy – but can they reach orbit?

Space is hot.

The billionaire “space barons” – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson – have given the industry a cachet not seen since the Apollo era of the 1960s and ’70s, with Branson and Bezos flying to the edge of space on their own spacecraft and Musk’s SpaceX becoming the dominant supplier of people and cargo to the International Space Station.

Investors are fearful of missing out. That’s turned out to be great news for the space companies hoping to get a piece of the satellite-launch business. But it’s also caused analysts to warn that space is still a nascent and risky business, one rocket explosion away from disaster.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are now flowing to an industry long viewed as too risky for serious investment. New start-ups are blossoming in an explosion reminiscent of the early days of tech, when money poured into Silicon Valley start-ups at the beginning of the Internet age. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, the chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, even predicted during a recent speech that investment in the commercial space sector would drive “a second Golden Age of space.”

Over the past decade, investors pumped $200 billion into 1,500 space companies around the world, according to an analysis done by Space Capital, a space investment firm. Investment in start-up space companies reached $7.6 billion last year, a 16 percent increase from 2019, according to Bryce Space and Technology, a consulting firm.

“This level of investment is consistent with the 6-year trend beginning in 2015 of unprecedented levels of venture capital driven investment flowing into the space industry,” the company said.

That has helped drive a $447 billion global space economy that grew 4.4 percent last year, according to the Space Foundation, an advocacy group. Over the past 10 years, the space economy has grown 55 percent, according to the Foundation, which said the commercial space products and services market is valued at $219 billion.

In addition to those investments, several space ventures have gone public over the past year through special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism company was one of the first high-profile space ventures to go public through a SPAC when it merged with a New York hedge fund in 2019. Since then, SPACs have “exploded in popularity,” according to a report by analysts at Avascent and Jefferies, a financial advisory firm specializing in aerospace, which found that the mergers across all industries raised $83 billion in 2020 compared to $14 billion the year before.

But the stocks can be volatile. In the last couple of weeks, for example, the stocks of two space companies took hits when they suffered problems. Shares of Virgin Galactic dipped after the Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the company after its flight, with Branson on board, went off course. The probe was first reported by the New Yorker.

Astra, a start-up rocket company based outside of San Francisco, saw its stock drop after a launch attempt failed to reach orbit last month.

Still, more than a dozen companies have gone public, or announced they would in recent months. They include Planet, which has built a constellation of satellites to take images of the Earth, and Astra. Rocket Lab, which has launched dozens of small satellites on its Electron rocket, started trading on the Nasdaq last month. And Virgin Orbit, which “air launches” a rocket designed to fly satellites by dropping it from the wing of a 747 airplane, announced that it would go public through a SPAC and that it had raised $100 million in another funding round backed by Boeing and AE Industrial Partners.

International companies also are driving growth, analysts said. “Going forward, I would expect to see it becoming increasingly international,” said Nickolas Boensch, a program manager at Bryce. “China, Japan, the U.K. have been huge players here, and there is something attractive to having a domestic capability.”

But part of the market may be overhyped and overheated, and analysts warn that there could be a reset similar to the tech bubble in the early 2000s.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re in a bubble,” said Greg Autry, a professor of space leadership policy and business at Arizona State University. “But that’s OK. A lot of people freaked out during the e-commerce bubble. But if I had the opportunity to buy Amazon or Google at the height of that bubble, I would.”

But as the Avascent analysts looked at the projected revenue for 10 companies that recently went public, the analysts warned that “not all SPACs are created equal.” They noted that “there is no free lunch in capital markets. Given that SPACs offer high return opportunities, they consequently carry notable risks.”

Chad Anderson, the managing partner of Space Capital, agreed, saying “for the most part these should be looked at with a very skeptical eye.”

A lot of the companies have yet to produce any revenue, he said, and “they have these projections where they go from $15 million to magically $2 billion in revenue in two years. And you have to wonder how they’re going to do that.”

Investors had long shied away from investing in space – the quickest way to become a millionaire in space, one axiom went, is to start out as a billionaire.

“There was a very limited market with a handful of defense contractors on one side, and the government on the other,” Anderson said.

SpaceX changed everything, he said. Musk’s company showed that it could win the trust of NASA and the Pentagon, score lucrative government contracts and capture a large portion of the commercial launch market as well. Last year, for example, SpaceX captured a Pentagon contract for $316 million for launches between 2022 and 2027. The United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, was awarded $337 million for launches during that period.

SpaceX has been a notable recipient of private investment. In 2015, Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion in the company, helping it fund the satellite constellation, called Starlink, it’s building to provide Internet to consumers from space.

Replicating SpaceX’s success may be difficult. Astra’s attempt to reach orbit went awry last month in an awkward, I-think-I-can attempt that saw the rocket fire its engines from its launchpad in Alaska, then lurch sideways as if it were exiting the stage, and finally climb into the skies. It flew straight up for 2 1/2 minutes before spinning out wildly. Controllers on the ground terminated the flight, causing it to crash into the ocean.

But Astra CEO Chris Kemp thinks his company, which uses a mobile launchpad, allowing the company to fly from any place it can get a license, will be successful in a market that is seeing a huge proliferation in the number of satellites flooding Earth’s orbit.

Over the next 10 years, more than 50,000 satellites could be launched into orbit, up from the few thousand currently in operation today, according to Analytical Graphics Inc., a company based outside Philadelphia that builds software to track spacecraft and debris in space.

To keep up with demand, Astra is planning to launch on an almost daily basis by 2025, Kemp said, an ambitious goal that he said is actually “conservative.”

“That’s what’s great about being a public company,” he said. “You have to put some things out there, and then your shareholders will judge you based on how you perform.”

After the Astra launch went awry, Kemp said that an engine shut down right after launch. But he wrote on Twitter that he was “incredibly proud of our team. Space may be hard, but like this rocket, we are not giving up.”

Peter Beck, the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, thinks his company is well positioned, too. It’s had nearly two dozen launches over the past three years from its site in New Zealand, putting more than 100 satellites in orbit for a range of customers, including NASA and the Pentagon. And it has more than $100 million in launches booked for an array of commercial and government customers. All of which gives Rocket Lab an edge over some of the other space companies looking to raise cash, Beck said.

“We’ve been the leader in this space for three years,” he said. “As investors look to differentiate companies, it’s pretty stark. There’s a column full of zeros – zero launches, zero revenue, zero everything. And then there’s a column on the Rocket Lab side that has significant numbers. So, it should be pretty obvious.”

When Tim Ellis looked to raise money for his young start-up rocket company in 2016, he pitched 90 investors over a grueling six-week period. “Eighty-nine said no,” he recalled. “One said yes” to lead the $10 million round.

Last year was a different story. The investors came to Ellis and his company, Relativity Space, and he raised $500 million, a massive amount for a rocket company that’s never launched a rocket. Then in June, it raked in another $650 million, a haul that it says will allow it to build a new manufacturing facility and pursue a larger rocket designed to compete with SpaceX.

Relativity Space has already sold a number of flights on its Terran 1 rocket, which the company plans to launch early next year. The rocket is “definitely the most presold rocket in history before launch both by the number of launches and total value,” Ellis said.

What separates Relativity from its competitors is the way it manufactures its hardware. The rockets are made entirely by a massive 3-D printer, which could open up other avenues of business for the company as well. But for now, it’s focused on building rockets and disrupting the industry that has manufactured space vehicles the same way for years, he said.

“We always knew that really we were building this software-driven manufacturing technology that scales without fixed tooling,” Ellis said. “And I’m quite convinced that is going to be the dominate force, not just in the launch industry, but in aerospace overall, which hasn’t changed for 60 years. We’re still building products one at a time by hand with hundreds of thousands to millions of individual parts, a very complicated supply chain, a ton of manual labor and really inefficient cost structures.”

At first, it was a hard sell. Now, it’s backed by some of the biggest names in the investor community, from Mark Cuban to Y Combinator, Fidelity, BlackRock and Tiger Global.

Now all the company has to do is prove it’s worth all that cash.

Published : September 06, 2021