WASHINGTON — Japanese startup GITAI has raised a further $15 million to proceed work on lunar robotics technologies, three months after raising $30 million.
The corporate, with offices in Tokyo and Torrance, California, said Aug. 29 it raised the funding as an extra extension of a Series B round. The corporate initially raised $17 million for that Series B round in 2021 and added $30 million to it in May.
The brand new funding is a mixture of debt and equity. MUFG Bank provided a $7 million loan while the remainder got here from investments by Green Co-Invest Investment Limited Partnership, Pacific Bays Capital and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Enterprise Capital.
Sho Nakanose, found and chief executive of GITAI, told SpaceNews the extra funding will ensure the corporate can proceed development of space robotics systems while expanding its U.S. presence. “In light of recent financial market conditions, we now have raised additional funds to make sure that we now have sufficient funds for business expansion within the U.S. market over the long term,” he said.
The brand new funding, he said, will enable the corporate to expand its U.S. workforce and to extend cooperation with each government agencies and firms excited about its robotic technologies.
GITAI has been working on a lunar rover and an “inchworm” robotic arm that could possibly be used to construct infrastructure, resembling solar arrays and antennas, on the moon. That has included tests of prototypes of those systems within the desert and, more recently, in a chamber crammed with simulated lunar regolith. The corporate’s goal is to conduct an illustration mission using that rover and robotic arm on the moon as soon as 2026.
The corporate also plans to reveal a robotic arm on the International Space Station. Nakanose said that robotic arm has passed all its NASA safety tests and was handed over to the agency this month. It’s currently scheduled to launch to the station on the NG-20 Cygnus cargo resupply mission in December. Once on the station, the arm might be mounted on the outside of Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock module.