Space Startup Stoke Nears $2 Billion Valuation in New Financing

Stoke Space, a startup building reusable rockets that are smaller than SpaceX’s, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a funding round that would value it at nearly $2 billion, roughly double its last private round, two people familiar with the matter said. The new lead investor is Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, one of the people said.

Investors consider Stoke—run by Andy Lapsa, an alum of Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin—a top contender among a new crop of space startups trying to crack the business of launching rockets to bring satellites to space, which SpaceX dominates. Stoke hasn’t yet launched a rocket into orbit, but plans to do so as early as next year from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Lapsa said recently.