Shares in payments company Shift4 rose in trading Wednesday after the company announced a five-year partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.
“Starlink is a cornerstone, a global customer opening opportunities around the world. By serving the business worldwide, Shift4’s [total addressable market] is expanding in all of the industries we serve, “said the company in an investor letter published with its third quarter results.
Shift4 stock rose 18% in trading from its previous closing price of $ 58.72 per share.
Starlink is SpaceX’s project to build an interconnected Internet network of thousands of satellites, known in the aerospace industry as the Constellation, designed to deliver high-speed Internet to consumers around the world. Elon Musk’s company has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and the network has more than 100,000 users in 14 countries participating in a public beta that costs $ 99 a month to service.
Shift4 announced that it will begin converting Starlink’s “domestic payment volume” into its services in the next 120 days. The payments company sees the SpaceX partnership as a “massive” opportunity and estimates $ 100 billion in Starlink subscription payments over the long term, based on Morgan Stanley’s estimates of SpaceX’s potential revenue growth.
According to the company’s website, Shift4 processes more than 3.5 billion transactions annually for more than 7,000 partners.
Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4, became an astronaut in particular when he flew into orbit with SpaceX on the historic private inspiration4 mission in September.
“SpaceX has a restaurant and several other pubs in the works in Starbase, Texas, and you can count on our new Skytab [point-of-sale] boost trade in these facilities, “Isaacman said during Shift4 earnings talks on Wednesday.
SpaceX’s valuation has surged to over $ 100 billion in recent years, which industry analysts largely attribute to the market potential of its Starlink service.
