Boeing Spins Off Venture Capital Arm as It Trims Costs
Boeing Spins Off Venture Capital Arm as It Winnows Spending
(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. is spinning off its HorizonX Ventures arm, along with stakes in about 40 portfolio companies, as the planemaker shrinks its infrastructure for a post-Covid world.
The Chicago-based planemaker dissolved an internal investing unit, known as NeXt, last fall as it pared spending and retreated from several ambitious forays launched late last decade before the 737 Max grounding and coronavirus pandemic drained more than $30 billion in cash.
The company had formed HorizonX in 2017, back when it was flush, to invest in early-stage companies or those with transformative aerospace technologies. The portfolio holdings include Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s space company.
Boeing is also transferring the team overseeing its investments to a new venture fund launched by AE Industrial Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in aerospace and defense deals, the companies said in a statement. The aviation titan will remain an anchor investor for the fund, known as AEI HorizonX, along with a follow-up fund planned for next year.
The U.S. manufacturer intends to continue to selectively invest in companies that fit with its strategic imperatives. Boeing recently formed a partnership to bring large-scale sustainable aviation fuel to the U.S. It intends to hang on to two high-profile startups funded by the former VC arm, including Wisk, the urban mobility venture it founded with Larry Page-backed Kitty Hawk Corp., and SkyGrid, a venture with SparkCognition aimed at helping managing the coming wave of unmanned vehicles.
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