Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LSE:SSIT) has announced that its portfolio company Xona Space Systems has completed a new financing round, in which the trust invested $15m through its C share portfolio.
The London-listed closed-ended investment company, which backs early and growth-stage private SpaceTech businesses, said the valuation set by the financing lifts the fair value of its existing ordinary shareholding in Xona by approximately £52.2m from the figure last published at 31 March, equivalent to 22.0p per ordinary share before any performance fee accrual.
The uplift makes Xona the trust's second-largest portfolio holding.
Seraphim expects to substantially reflect the increase in its portfolio valuation as at 30 September.
Xona had already featured among SSIT's recent portfolio momentum: the company's previous Series C round, completed earlier this year, lifted the trust's carrying value in Xona by 167%.
James Bruegger, Seraphim CIO, said Xona is building "a commercial upgrade to GPS, on which the global economy depends," and that the latest financing reflects "our conviction in the scale of the opportunity ahead."
He added that having backed Xona "from the outset," the manager believes the company "has the potential to redefine satellite navigation globally."
Bruegger described the deal as demonstrating the Seraphim model "at its best": identifying founders early through its accelerator and continuing to invest as portfolio companies scale.