More a victim of their launch failure on 2023-01-09, as reported here. At the time, Jeff Foust of SpaceNews reported:
The failure comes at a precarious time for Virgin Orbit, which has struggled to increase its launch rate and generate revenue. The company, in a Nov. 7 earnings call, reported it closed the third quarter with $71 million in cash, after reporting negative free cash flow of $52.5 million. The company raised $25 million from Virgin Group in early November and another $20 million from Virgin Investments Limited, an investment arm of the Virgin Group, Dec. 20.
With competition growing in the small satellite launch market, and Rocket Lab and SpaceX (with their ride share Transporter missions) offering comparable services and a record of reliability, it’s hard to raise money after a launch failure that deposited nine customers’ satellites in the drink and only four successes in six attempts.
All of the venture capital herd is now stampeding into artificial intelligence and space is yesterday’s Current Thing.