Voyager wants to ride the defense tech wave to a $1.6 billion IPO
Voyager Technologies, a defense and space tech company, aims to raise up to $319 million in an initial public offering that could value it as high as $1.6 billion, the company said on Monday.
Their filing underscores how defense and space tech companies are drawing renewed attention from DC and Silicon Valley. In his second inaugural address in January, President Donald Trump declared that "we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also bullish on how tech will change the battlefield.
Private market defense investors are rallying behind such calls for modernization, while the Defense Department has created a new program to fund defense startups spinning out of college campuses. There's been some action in public markets, too: Kochav Defense Acquisition Corporation, a defense tech special-purpose acquisition company, completed its IPO in late May.
IPOs have largely remained sluggish, though fintech companies Chime and Circle, and virtual physical therapy company Hinge Health have all recently gone public. Bankers say the window for going public is narrowing due to political and market volatility, so they're urging companies to move quickly toward an IPO while investor appetite lasts.
Founded in 2019, Voyager is developing a low-Earth orbit commercial space station, Starlab, funded by over $200 million from NASA. The company is working with Airbus, Mitsubishi, MDA Space, and Palantir on the project.
The company, initially called Voyager Space, dropped "Space" in a January rebrand to focus more on defense applications, like tech that improves the precision, speed, and reliability of missiles and defense interceptors.
Voyager reported $34.5 million in net sales in the first quarter of 2025, up more than 14% from the same period last year. But its net losses in the quarter almost doubled, nearly hitting $27 million compared to just under $15 million a year ago, according to an SEC filing.
Early Voyager investors include national security-focused firms Industrious Ventures, Marlinspike, and Scout Ventures.
Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are jointly leading the proposed offering. The company's shares, "VOYG," will trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
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