Billionaire Elon Musk and SpaceX may have just found a new partner in their his planned mission to Mars.

Naveen Jain, the founder of a space exploration company called Moon Express, told CNBC on Thursday that his start-up is willing to work with Musk.

Moon Express is the first private company given permission by the U.S. government to explore the moon for resources. It is planning a mission to take a robotic rover to the moon in 2017.

But Jain said that in Cape Canveral – Moon Express's base – the company has two "neighbors" – Jeff Bezos and his space company Blue Origin, and Musk and SpaceX.

When Jain was asked by CNBC if he would work with Musk, the entrepreneur said "absolutely".

"It's very complimentary as a matter of fact … Elon will build the rocket and we do the rover. Essentially, he lays the cables and we do the last mile," Jain told CNBC in an interview at the Slush technology conference in Helsinki, Finland.

Jain said he has spoken to Musk about working together without giving further details. Earlier this year, Musk laid out his vision to colonize Mars and take a manned mission to the Red Planet in the next ten years.