Firefly Aerospace Inc., the American rocket and space technology developer, owned by Ukrainian businessman Maksym Poliakov, has completed the first round (A) of venture funding with more than $ 175 million raised (with the planned $ 75 million), the total cost of the company exceeded $ 1 billion.
According to Firefly CEO Tom Markusic, the interest of investors during Round A significantly exceeded the initially planned $ 75 million and in order to meet the demand, the main investor of Firefly – Noosphere Ventures – sold part of shares worth more than $ 100 million to a number of participants in this round and other shareholders, while remaining the majority shareholder.
According to the company, this decision did not affect the strategic management and control of the company.
Following the launch of the Alpha carrier rocket, Firefly plans to raise an additional $ 300 million in investment by the end of 2021 to support the company’s growth plans through 2025, according to a Facebook post by Firefly Aerospace.
Tom Markusic stressed that the implementation of the next investment round, scheduled for 2021, will allow Firefly to fully fulfill its business plan for the development of new spaceships and launch vehicles.
As reported, earlier Firefly Aerospace announced plans to raise $ 350 million to scale production and create a mid-range rocket – Firefly Beta.
K.A.N. (Kyiv) in 2020 reduced its net profit by 24% compared to the previous year, to UAH 98.9 million.
According to the company’s annual report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, its revenue increased by 8.3% and amounted to UAH 303.6 million.
Uncovered loss in 2020 decreased by 40.6%, to UAH 144.4 million, current liabilities – by 80%, to UAH 51.4 million, long-term liabilities over the year did not change and amounted to UAH 447.9 million.
In general, the assets of K.A.N. last year decreased by 13.5%, to UAH 674.8 million.
K.A.N. established in 2001, it is engaged in the rental and operation of its own real estate. According to the data of the unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the owner of the company is Deverte Holding GmbH (Austria).
The registered capital of К.А.N. for April 2021 is UAH 23,600, the ultimate owner is Oleksandr Spektor (Kyiv).
Volume of construction products produced by type in Jan-Feb of 2021 (mln UAH)
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 06/05/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meaningful and believes that 2021 will be fundamental for relations between Ukraine and the United States.
“In general, the meeting is meaningful, and we believe that this will be a fundamental year in relations between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelensky said at a general press conference with Blinken on May 6.
At a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday, Blinken said that the United States supports the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. The Secretary of State is very pleased that this position is shared by all the members of the G7, from which he just returned from London.
According to political scientist Daniil Bogatyriov, in recent weeks, international relations are characterized by an escalation in confrontation between various centers of power.
According to the expert in international affairs, the beginning of not one, but two cold wars is characteristic of the current geopolitical situation in the world: between Russia and the United States in Eastern Europe and between China and the United States in Southeast Asia.
“For example, a recent meeting of the representatives of the U.S. Department State and the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Alaska only exacerbated contradictions between the countries. At the end of the meeting, unambiguous confrontational statements were made. The American side expressed to the Chinese one claims about the violation of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the increasing pressure in Taiwan. The Chinese, in turn, pointed to the facts of human rights violations in the United States during the suppression of the BLM protest movement,” Bogatyriov said.
According to the political scientist, a similar level of confrontation has also been achieved between the United States and the Russian Federation.
“Today we see attempts to eliminate internal opposition in Russia and Belarus. Thus, the Russian authorities have launched a process to recognize the structure of Alexei Navalny (the Anti-Corruption Foundation) an extremist organization. It is no coincidence that the so-called conspiracy of the opposition intelligentsia has been uncovered in Belarus just now,” the expert said.
He noted that all these processes in the future may lead to the formation of the phenomenon of “large spaces” in various regions of the world, which will in fact be zones of direct influence of one or another large state.
“We are entering the world of “large spaces,” the world of zones of influence, where a cold war will flare up between them and in the future serious restrictions on the movement of citizens and any other cross-border activities are not ruled out. Such things will be possible only within the framework of their large space, that is, this will lead to the lowering of the very real “iron curtain,” as it was in the last cold war,” Bogatyriov summed up.
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