Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 10.1 billion yen (about $74 million) in a Series G round, which brought the startup’s total funding sum up to 43.5 billion yen (about $319 million). This follows their Series F round back in November of 2021. Investors participating in the latest round are: In May, Astroscale successfully demonstrated the guided approach of the ELSA-d debris removal technology demonstration satellite. In addition, for the launch of the EKSA-M actual operation satellite, the company signed a €14.8 million deal with US satellite operator OneWeb, UKSA and ESA (space agencies under the UK and European Union governments). They also secured 1.7 million pounds from UKSA for the removal of two British orbiting satellites in September, Since the Series F round back in November of 2021, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 63 percent, reaching about 400 employees globally. via PR Times
ELSA-d Image credit: Astroscale Holdings
Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 10.1 billion yen (about $74 million) in a Series G round, which brought the startup’s total funding sum up to 43.5 billion yen (about $319 million). This follows their Series F round back in November of 2021.
Investors participating in the latest round are:
Mitsubishi Electric (TSE: 6503)
Yusaku Maezawa
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank
Mitsubishi Corporation (TSE: 8058)
Development Bank of Japan
FEL
In May, Astroscale successfully demonstrated the guided approach of the ELSA-d debris removal technology demonstration satellite. In addition, for the launch of the EKSA-M actual operation satellite, the company signed a €14.8 million deal with US satellite operator OneWeb, UKSA and ESA (space agencies under the UK and European Union governments). They also secured 1.7 million pounds from UKSA for the removal of two British orbiting satellites in September,
Since the Series F round back in November of 2021, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 63 percent, reaching about 400 employees globally.
Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 12.4 billion yen (about $109 million) in a Series F round, which brought the startup’s valuation to 33.4 billion yen (about $295 million). This follows their series E round back in October of last year. Investors participating in the latest round are: DNCA Invest Beyound Global Leaders Environmental Energy Investment Siniphian AXA Life Insurance Innovation Engine OPS Seraphim Space Investment Trust Solaris ESG Master Fund Chiba Dojo Nomura Sparks Investment Prelude Structured Alternatives Master Fund Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office (the family office of Nindendo’s founder) Y’s Investment According to the company, the funding will enable the company’s global growth, including the development of technology for safe and cost-effective on-orbit services and the expansion of its own facilities for mass production in Japan, the UK and the US. Since its Series E round back in October of last year, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 60 percent, reaching about 250 employees globally. The company successfully launched and put into orbit the ELSA-d space debris removal satellite in March, and this month, followed by introducing its docking plate this month, which is designed to be pre-loaded onto…
ELSA-d Image credit: Astroscale Holdings
Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 12.4 billion yen (about $109 million) in a Series F round, which brought the startup’s valuation to 33.4 billion yen (about $295 million). This follows their series E round back in October of last year.
Investors participating in the latest round are:
DNCA Invest Beyound Global Leaders
Environmental Energy Investment
Siniphian
AXA Life Insurance
Innovation Engine
OPS
Seraphim Space Investment Trust
Solaris ESG Master Fund
Chiba Dojo
Nomura Sparks Investment
Prelude Structured Alternatives Master Fund
Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office (the family office of Nindendo’s founder)
Y’s Investment
According to the company, the funding will enable the company’s global growth, including the development of technology for safe and cost-effective on-orbit services and the expansion of its own facilities for mass production in Japan, the UK and the US.
Since its Series E round back in October of last year, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 60 percent, reaching about 250 employees globally.
The company successfully launched and put into orbit the ELSA-d space debris removal satellite in March, and this month, followed by introducing its docking plate this month, which is designed to be pre-loaded onto low-Earth orbit satellites, one of the main possible sources of space debris.
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced on Friday that it has fundraised $25 million in a series C round. Japanese venture investment company aStart, ANA Holdings (TSE:9202), Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Jafco as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in this round. INCJ, Jafco and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital have participated in the past rounds. Astroscale said that it will use the funds to expand the operations of their UK subsidiary and strengthen their management team. For Astroscale, this follows their $7.7 million series A round funding and $35 million series B round funding. Among the newly-joined investors, Astroscale has received sponsorship from OSG to start developing a a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 in 2015. Astroscale plans to launch IDEA OSG 1 in early 2018 followed by a magnet-use space debris removal satellite prototype ELSA-d in the first half of 2019. The company aims to start commercializing its business in 2020. Astroscale claims that it expects ANA to share their knowledge about safe flight operations and control as well as OSG to provide tools for…
Image credit: Astroscale
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced on Friday that it has fundraised $25 million in a series C round. Japanese venture investment company aStart, ANA Holdings (TSE:9202), Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Jafco as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in this round. INCJ, Jafco and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital have participated in the past rounds. Astroscale said that it will use the funds to expand the operations of their UK subsidiary and strengthen their management team.
For Astroscale, this follows their $7.7 million series A round funding and $35 million series B round funding. Among the newly-joined investors, Astroscale has received sponsorship from OSG to start developing a a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 in 2015. Astroscale plans to launch IDEA OSG 1 in early 2018 followed by a magnet-use space debris removal satellite prototype ELSA-d in the first half of 2019. The company aims to start commercializing its business in 2020.
Astroscale ELSA-d Image credit: Astroscale
Astroscale claims that it expects ANA to share their knowledge about safe flight operations and control as well as OSG to provide tools for producing satellites. In terms of ANA’s investments in space-related businesses, this is the second case following the one in Japanese spaceflight developer startup PD Aerospace (about $180,000) back in December of 2016. ANA launched their in-house R&D initiative Digital Design Lab in April of 2016, aiming to promote innovations in their group in order to expand themselves beyond aerospace business, by also running a crowdfunding site called WonderFLY.
See the original story in Japanese. Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced today that it has fundraised up to $35 million from Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Jafco in a series B round. INCJ will undertake an investment worth up to $30 million while Jafco will invest $5 million from their fund raised from other several investors. The latest funding round is followed by securing a $7.7 million series A round back in February of 2015 where Jafco, Mistletoe as well as angel investors like Kotaro Yamagishi (Gree co-founder), Kenji Kasahara (Mixi co-founder), Shuhei Morofuji (SMS founder) and Kiyoshi Nishikawa (Netage founder) paid in. At the beginning of the press conference in Tokyo today, Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki made a keynote speech to elaborate the danger of space debris which she experienced through her space shuttle Discovery mission STS-131. Ground-based radar telescopes can detect the Earth’s debris down to 10 centimeters in size so that a space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS) can be warned to avoid space debris. However, space debris are so fast (circling the Earth at a velocity of…
From the left: Shigeyuki Tsuchida (Senior Executive Officer, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan), Naoko Yamazaki (astronaut), Mitsunobu Okada (CEO, Astroscale)
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced today that it has fundraised up to $35 million from Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Jafco in a series B round. INCJ will undertake an investment worth up to $30 million while Jafco will invest $5 million from their fund raised from other several investors. The latest funding round is followed by securing a $7.7 million series A round back in February of 2015 where Jafco, Mistletoe as well as angel investors like Kotaro Yamagishi (Gree co-founder), Kenji Kasahara (Mixi co-founder), Shuhei Morofuji (SMS founder) and Kiyoshi Nishikawa (Netage founder) paid in.
At the beginning of the press conference in Tokyo today, Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki made a keynote speech to elaborate the danger of space debris which she experienced through her space shuttle Discovery mission STS-131. Ground-based radar telescopes can detect the Earth’s debris down to 10 centimeters in size so that a space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS) can be warned to avoid space debris. However, space debris are so fast (circling the Earth at a velocity of about 7.5 kilometers per second) that even tiny space debris smaller than 10 centimeters and larger than 1 centimeter, which cannot be detected with ground-based radar telescopes, may greatly damage rockets, artificial satellites and the ISS.
Receiving sponsorship from Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Astroscale started developing a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 last year, which aims to detect small space debris which cannot be detected with ground-based radar telescopes. To remove space debris, they will develop capturing satellites called ADRAS 01 which is to use lightweight but sticky adhesives to capture space debris which is relatively smaller and located at a relatively lower altitude, and then reenter the atmosphere to burn the captured debris out. For ones larger or located at a higher altitude, these will be decongested from a heavy traffic orbit rather than being removed because it will require higher energy consumption to move them. Capturing satellites are to incorporate advance technologies from Japanese ultra-microsatellite series Hodoyoshi, have an ion engine, hydrogen peroxide solution-based attitude control system and ESP (Electric Solid Propellent) thrusters.
From the left: Space-debris capturing satellite ADRAS 1, space-debris detection satellite IDEA OSG 1
Mitsunobu Okada, CEO of Astroscale, emphasized that his company has been receiving cooperation from 11 laboratories at 9 universities, two technical colleges, JAXA (Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency) and 50 other private-sector companies including machine manufacturing company Yuki Precision. Okada named a team of these people involved in this Space Sweepers project, and stated his aspiration that they all unite together to lead the project to success.
Astroscale plans to launch the first IDEA OSG 1 satellite from Russia between 2016 and early 2017. Following that, they will launch ADRAS 01 in the first half of 2018 to begin conducting proof of concept (PoC) tests. Represented by Japanese space startup Axelspace, the upcoming trend of satellite business will be shifting to satellite constellation, which allows users to observe many parts of the planet without timing constraints. Astroscale wants to monetize by acquiring these satellite business operators as clients and receiving entrusted tasks such as removing failed satellites or securing orbits.
Astroscale 
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Masaru Ikeda
