Mynaric: Peter Thiel, Christian Angermayer and Cathie Wood join the German laser specialist

Enlarge image

Prominent investors:

Star investor

joins Mynaric

Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS

The German laser communication specialist Mynaric has won the German-born PayPal co-founder

(54) and Tinder founder

(35) as investors

in the course of its IPO on the US technology exchange Nasdaq

. The investment company of US star investor

(65), Ark Invest, has also come on board, the company founded in Gilching near Munich in 2009 announced on Monday. The German

(43) has

invested again

with his family office Apeiron.

Mynaric, whose technology is used to transmit data in space over tens of thousands of kilometers between satellites and which Northrop Grumman recently won as a customer, has been listed in Germany for years. When the IPO on Wall Street on Friday, the paper had opened with a price increase of more than 20 percent at the issue price of 16.50 dollars. Together with the placement reserve, the company will receive almost $ 76 million, which will mainly be invested in the expansion of production capacities and new products. Together with the over-allotment option, the number of shares in the company amounts to just under 5.243 million.

Angermayer now has some experience with IPOs in the USA.

With Apeiron, the investor accompanied the new issues of the US cancer drug company Sensei Biotherapeutics as well as the biotech companies Abcellera, Compass Pathways and the biotech start-up Atai Life Sciences, which specializes in the treatment of mental illnesses with so-called "magic mushrooms".

According to the annual report, Mynaric had a turnover of 1.35 million euros with 214 employees in the first half of 2021.

The operating loss (EBIT) increased according to the information due to the expansion of development, production and IT capacities and the hiring of additional employees in the first six months to 16.24 million euros.

The company opted for a secondary listing of its shares in the US to capitalize on the growing interest in the space industry.

Mynaric assumes that the need for fast and permanent data availability will continue to grow dynamically.

At present, data networks are largely based on infrastructure on the ground, which for legal, economic or logistical reasons cannot be expanded at will.

The future, however, requires an expansion of the existing network infrastructure in the aerospace industry.

With its own wireless laser communication products, the company sees itself well positioned in this growth market.

rei / Reuters