Japan launches space start-up accelerator

The program, known as S-Booster, will include an ideas contest involving more than 300 seed-level start-ups, a mentoring program with investors and industry professionals, and access to expertise at the Japanese national space agency JAXA.

Toyokazu Nagamume, a deputy director at the National Space Policy Secretariat, told AVCJ the program would bring together more than 50 investors, among them Global Brain, D4V, Beyond Next Ventures, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Plug And Play Japan, and 01Booster. Sponsors include Dentsu Corporation and aerospace strategic ANA Holdings, which is an investor in VC-backed space debris collection technology developer Astroscale.

This is the third iteration of S-Booster but the first to include start-ups from across Asia rather than Japan only. The program will be held across Japan and Thailand. It will prioritize business development related to space data applications, such as orbital imaging, and Japan’s GPS satellite system known as Michibiki. Other focus segments will include internet-of-things and space medicine, an emerging discipline intended to enable long-term manned missions.

Japan has proven a leading jurisdiction for space technology development and investment in Asia. Recent activity includes a $23 million Series B for ready-to-launch microsatellite technology company Axelspace, a $7.3 million round for cloud-based satellite telecom technology provider Infostellar, and a $90.2 million round that included Dentsu and INCJ for iSpace, a company developing a range of lunar exploration and payload delivery technologies.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Infrastructure
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Japan
• Global Brain Corporation
• Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ)
• seed