SANTA FE, N.M. — Japanese Earth statement company Axelspace has raised nearly $44 million to each expand its satellite constellation and supply smallsats for other applications.
The Tokyo-based company announced Dec. 21 that it raised 6.24 billion yen ($43.9 million) in a Series D round from several Japanese corporations and enterprise funds. The corporate, which last raised 2.58 billion yen in a Series C round in 2021, has brought in 14.3 billion yen since its founding in 2008.
The corporate currently operates five microsatellites that provide medium-resolution imagery through a service it calls AxelGlobe. 4 of those satellites launched in 2021, three years after its first satellite. Axelspace said the brand new funding will support expansion of its satellite constellation but didn’t provide details in regards to the plans.
The Series D round will even go towards an initiative Axelspace announced in 2022 called AxelLiner, where the corporate will produce microsatellites for other customers. The goal of the service is to supply a “one-stop service” for the production, launch and operations of smallsats for other customers.
On the time of the AxelLiner announcement, the corporate said it could work with two other Japanese firms, Misumi Group Ltd. and Yuki Holdings Inc., in an alliance for mass production of smallsats. The primary demonstration satellite of that effort is scheduled for launch in early 2024.
“With this financing, we hope to further solidify the business foundations of each AxelGlobe and AxelLiner services and to determine ourselves as a number one player in providing comprehensive microsatellite solutions,” Yuya Nakamura, president and chief executive of Axelspace, said in an announcement in regards to the financing round.
Axelspace is a component of a trend of corporations that originally built satellites for their very own businesses but now offer them to others. Spire, which operates a big cubesat constellation for weather and tracking data, has won several customers for its “space as a service” business line, offering satellites and related capabilities.
Several Axelspace investors cited that move into satellite manufacturing and services as a key consider their decisions to take part in the round. “Now we have decided to speculate within the space industry, a brand new growth engine for Japan, and specifically in Axelspace,” said Jun Takahashi, president of SMBC Enterprise Capital Management Co., lead investor within the round. “We’re impressed by its achievement in pioneering the space industry and hold high expectations for his or her future global contributions as a satellite manufacturer and a knowledge service provider.”
“Now we have decided to speculate in Axelspace, a pioneer in the sphere of microsatellites, within the hope that they are going to change into a worldwide unicorn company from Japan and take the corporate to the subsequent level,” said Yasuhiko Yurimoto, chief executive of Global Brain Corporation, one other investor in Axelspace.
The funding round is the most recent sign of growing investor interest in Japan for entrepreneurial space corporations. Satellite servicing company Astroscale, based in Tokyo with operations in several countries, has raised greater than $376 million, including a $76 million Series G round in February. That round included a strategic investment from Japanese satellite manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric.
In April, Japanese lunar lander developer ispace went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange shortly before its first lander crashed on final approach to the lunar surface. It’s working on a second lander scheduled to launch in 2024.
One other Japanese company, iQPS, went public on the identical exchange Dec. 6, raising $24 million. The corporate said the funding would support its development of a constellation of synthetic aperture radar imaging satellites.