Kiichiro Sato/AP
- The Boring Company, Elon Musk‘s tunnel-digging startup, is raising outside funding for the first time, Bloomberg reported.
- The company is planning to sell $120 million in stock, according to a securities filing reviewed by Bloomberg.
- Last year, the Boring Company raised $112.5 million, 90% of which came from Musk.
- The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunnel-digging startup, is raising outside funding for the first time, Bloomberg reported. The company is planning to sell $120 million in stock, according to a securities filing reviewed by Bloomberg.
The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
One of the investors will reportedly be Future Ventures, a venture-capital firm co-founded by Steve Jurvetson, who sits on the board of directors at the electric-car maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, both of which feature Elon Musk as their CEO.
In 2017, Jurvetson took a leave of absence from SpaceX and Tesla’s boards and resigned from his prior venture-capital firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, after he was accused of sexual harassment. Jurvetson has denied the allegations.
"We are delighted to be an investor in Boring," Jurvetson told Bloomberg. "Boring is a great example of the disruptive playbook we look for."
Future Ventures did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Read more: A bunch of college engineers hit a top speed of 288 mph in Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod competition
The Boring Company is aiming to finish its first project, a tunnel connecting the two ends of the Las Vegas Convention Center, by the end of this year. The company also has a 2-mile test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, and projects designed to run in Chicago and between Washington DC and Baltimore that are in their early stages. It had planned to build a tunnel in Los Angeles but scrapped the project last year after opposition from local residents.
Last year, the Boring Company raised $112.5 million, 90% of which came from Musk. The company has also used unconventional fundraising methods, like selling branded hats and flamethrowers.
The Boring Company was founded by Musk in 2016 due in part to his frustrations with Los Angeles traffic. The company’s objective is to build tunnels that could one day house the high-speed Loop and Hyperloop transit systems.
Hyperloop, first proposed by Musk in a 2013 white paper, would carry passengers in pods at speeds of over 600 mph. Loop resembles the Hyperloop but would be used for shorter distances that require slower speeds. The Boring Company says Loop pods could hold up to 16 people and travel at up to 150 mph. Musk has said a Loop system could be accessed by dozens of small stations that would transport passengers underground and take up as much space as a parking spot.
Read Bloomberg’s full story here.
Have you worked for the Boring Company? Do you have a story to share? Email this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.
See Also:
- Tesla’s whole plan for making money may have just gotten blown sky-high
- Tesla is about to report its 2nd-quarter earnings. Here’s what to expect from Elon Musk’s electric-car company.
- Tesla bailed on its harassment lawsuit against a short seller after refusing to provide evidence of its claims
SEE ALSO: Tesla’s business is a mess — but it’s actually not that much different from every other car company
Source: Business Insider – mmatousek@businessinsider.com (Mark Matousek)