Investors seems to be really serious about the extraterrestrial this year. Recently in a statement, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said, “We tripled the investor count” from last year’s conference, “We ran out of room.”
Jonas, who is renowned on Wall Street for his early calls on Tesla, has recently allegedly been looking at the fast-growing space industry. This event as Morgan Stanley’s second space-focused event for investors.
Both aerospace giants and private capital are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and opportunities. Jonas further said that “Investor interest in space is really, really growing. [But there are still] knowledge gaps and, in the public support for space, that’s what’s had been lacking.”
The event on Tuesday featured multiple panels, taking questions from prospective investors.
There were a range of discussions, there were presentations on: Capital formation (with early stage investors Razor’s Edge Ventures, Seraphim Capital, In-Q-Tel and RRE Ventures); National security (with the leaders of Parsons, HawkEye 360 and Jacobs); Japanese startups (featuring the CEOs of ispace, Astroscale, ALE and Synspective); Earth-imaging satellites (with Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies); Rocket launchers (led by U.S. based Rocket Lab and Italian builder Avio); and Broadband (with ViaSat and Intelsat).
Besides, two keynote speakers: Kevin O’Connell, director of the Office of Space Commerce, and George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic were also featured during the event.
Just a few days back, the space tourism company made its public debut and Jonas was seen citing that as one of the two key changes he’s seen this year. Jonas even said, “We’re going to need those private-to-public moments that help accelerate.”
And for the second key change Jonas said that going public is not necessarily the only way institutional investors may benefit from. He in fact noted an increasing ability and willingness for Morgan Stanley’s clients to invest in private companies directly.
A number of Stanley’s investors have previous knowledge and background of the space industry; however, Jonas roughly estimated that as many as half were looking at space for the first time.
Jonas further added, “There’s only one Wall Street space summit,” and he even plans to continue hosting the New York City event at Morgan Stanley’s headquarters, with the hope to see even higher investor attendance next year.
