Relativity, a company 3D printing entire rockets, raises $140 million from venture firms Bond, Tribe

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Relativity co-founders Tim Ellis (left) and Jordan Noone stand next to a 3D printed second stage of the company’s Terran 1 rocket.
Space start-up Relativity Space just raised the money it needs to transform the rocket supply chain in the U.S. with 3D printing.
Relativity announced on Tuesday it closed $140 million in new fundraising, led by Bond Capital – a fund whose partners include Mary Meeker – and recently-formed Tribe Capital.
Meeker helped spin Bond out of Kleiner Perkins last year and the $1.3 billion fund’s investment in Relativity is its first in the space industry.
“We were looking for the very top of the top in investors in the world,” Relativity CEO Tim Ellis told CNBC, adding that Meeker has “built dozens of very iconic household names.”
Relativity has now raised $185 million since its founding.
“While these investors may not come from the space industry, they’re extremely savvy about business,” Ellis said.
“He’s got a ridiculous tech portfolio: AirBnB, Uber, Spotify, Stripe and more,” Ellis said of Leto.
Relativity’s board of directors has grown to five, with Bond’s Noah Knauf now joining Ellis, Relativity co-founder Jordan Noone, Social Capital’s Jay Zaveri and Playground Global’s Jory Bell.
While Relativity had a valuation of about $100 million before this round of fundraising, Ellis declined to comment on the company’s new valuation.
“It’s clearly a large step up,” Ellis said.
Relativity aims to build entire rockets using 3D printing.
But with a factory of its Stargate printers and its $10 million Terran 1 rocket, Relativity is working to build rockets in weeks – rather than years.
According to Ellis, it takes companies between 24 months to 36 months to build available rockets.
“Because you have to order the materials and then there is a long lead time in the supply chain, that has hundreds of thousands of suppliers,” Ellis

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