8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (2)
#10962093 at 2020-10-07 12:13:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14022: Media Is In On It - A True Scandal Edition
Media isn't the only scandal.
Space startup Momentus to go public at $1.2 billion valuation via blank-check merger.
" Space transportation company "
Here we go. The Russian version of Elon Musk.
I was born in Siberia in 1976, in a small Mongolian village not far from the place where Genghis Khan started his conquest. It was a poor village. We had no sanitation in the house and almost no electricity, so as I began my education, I had to study by the light of a kerosene lamp.
Mikhail Kokorich, Momentus President and Founder: My Story
From explosives > Retail Stores > to the fake infinite and beyond
https://momentus.space/2018/07/08/Mikhail-Kokorich-momentus-president-and-founder-my-story/
#7402870 at 2019-12-01 02:23:50 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9467: Sleepy Creepy Joe done lost his bus!! Edition
The torture of CFIUS: A 2018 law is changing the way space industry startups raise money
The U.S. Treasury Department hasn't issued final regulations implementing the 2018 Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), but space industry entrepreneurs already feel the law's effect.
"It hurts," Mike Collett, founder and managing partner of Promus Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Chicago, said at the World Satellite Business Week conference in September. "I understand, as a U.S. citizen, what the administration is trying to do. But this is having a very negative effect on funding rounds."
The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act expanded the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency panel led by the treasury secretary to examine investments with potential impacts on national security. Prior to 2018, CFIUS (pronounced SIFFee-yus) primarily reviewed mergers, acquisitions and investments that gave foreign persons or entities at least a 10% stake in U.S. companies. Under the new law, CFIUS can review any investment in critical infrastructure and critical technologies if an investor obtains certain rights, such as a seat on a company's board of directors or access to technical information that is not publicly available.
FIRRMA does not single out investment from specific countries. However, the legislation is designed to encourage added scrutiny of certain investments, including Chinese investments, and to create a more efficient process for clearing investments from U.S. allies that do not raise national security concerns, said Brian Curran, a Hogan Lovells partner, who previously worked as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst.
On Sept. 24, the Treasury Department published proposed rules in the Federal Register and requested comment for a plan to exempt certain foreign investors from the CFIUS review process. Under the plan, the Treasury Department would publish a list of foreign states that conduct their own robust review of foreign investment. Investors with ties to those states could then apply for exemption from CFIUS review for certain transactions.
"As this is a new concept with potentially significant implications for the national security of the United States, CFIUS initially intends to designate a limited number of eligible foreign states," according to the Treasury Department's Federal Register notice.
For now, FIRRMA is makes it more difficult for space companies to accept money from any private foreign investors, said Mikhail Kokorich, an entrepreneur who established consumer businesses in Russia prior to founding space companies in the United States, Canada and Europe. "The main victims are small and medium-sized companies that create new technologies and depend on investor money," he added.
Investors and entrepreneurs largely echo that sentiment.
"CFIUS is designed to have an impact and it is having an impact," Mark Boggett, CEO, co-founder and managing partner of Seraphim Capital, a space-focused venture firm based in London, said at the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris. "It's creating an additional hurdle that we have to get over in order to invest in the U.S. market. Hurdles obviously aren't good."
RETURNING MILLIONS
Space entrepreneurs focused on commercial markets say they are frustrated by the changing rules. Startups seeking U.S. government contracts largely steer clear of CFIUS review by avoiding foreign investment altogether or strictly limiting investment to U.S. citizens and close U.S. allies.
One commercial space entrepreneur is considering returning millions of dollars of foreign investment.
"CFIUS is a big deal," said another entrepreneur, who is trying to raise money but recently turned down funding to avoid CFIUS review.
"Space companies require a lot of capital," said a third entrepreneur, who asked not to be quoted by name. "CFIUS makes raising money even harder."
Investment funds have sprung up in recent years to back space industry startups but some of those, like the Seraphim Space Fund, are not based in the United States. In addition, funds established by U.S. venture capital firms sometimes involve limited partners from around the world, which could trigger CFIUS review.
https://spacenews.com/the-torture-of-cfius-a-2018-law-is-changing-the-way-space-industry-startups-raise-money/