Beta Technologies finished the first day on the NYSE in the green and raised $1 billion

Shares of electric aviation startup Beta Technologies took off on Tuesday as the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange with a big $1 billion raise and a stock price that closed higher.

The Vermont-based company priced its shares in its IPO at $34, above the expected range of $27 to $33. Beta Technologies sold 29.9 million shares to raise more than $1 billion at a $7.4 billion valuation.

Once trading began, Beta Technologies shares fell before recovering and eventually closing at $36.

Beta Technologies’ public market debut is the culmination of founder and CEO Kyle Clark’s unconventional approach to building an aerospace company. Clark, a Harvard-educated former professional hockey player and aviation coach, founded Beta Technologies in 2017. He didn’t take the typical path of a startup founder, shunning Silicon Valley for his hometown of Vermont and bypassing venture capital. Instead, PETA raised money — to the tune of $1.15 billion — from institutional investors such as Fidelity and the Qatar Investment Authority. Amazon and General Electric are among the largest investors in Beta.

In another unusual move, the company filed its IPO papers despite the government shutdown. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance last month allowing companies experiencing uncertainty about an IPO to release statements, including the stock price, that automatically become effective after 20 days, even without review by SEC staff. Several other companies, including Navan, have gone ahead with IPO plans under this rule.

The decision to proceed under SEC guidance would mean a 20-day roadshow with investors, Clark told TechCrunch, adding that the bank’s advisors told him that going down the road for that long was risky.

“And I said, ‘You know what?’” Clark said in an interview Monday evening. It actually isn’t. “I think the more time we spend with investors, the better it is for our beta.” “As people started to dig deeper into technology and strategy, we got stronger and stronger, and our oversubscription speaks for itself.”

He told TechCrunch that his hope is for slow, steady growth for the stock, not a wild, uncontrolled pop.

Now Clark says he’s focusing back on the company, including commercial licensing of its electric planes by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Beta aims to be an original equipment manufacturer for the aviation sector. The company has designed two electric aircraft. A conventional electric aircraft called the Alia CX300 eCTOL is designed for regional aviation. An electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, dubbed the Alia A250 eVTOL, is geared for urban environments.

Beta has also built an electric vehicle aircraft charging business, of which Archer Aviation is a customer.

Regulatory documents for Beta’s IPO show that it generated revenue but is still nowhere near profitability. Beta generated $15.6 million in the first half of 2025, double the revenues of the same period in 2024. Its net losses also increased by about a third to $183 million during the first six months of the year.