Japan's iSpace raises $28m Series B

Sparx Group, Takasago Thermal Engineering, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance also participated.

It comes two-and-a-half years after a $90 million investment that was said to be the largest-ever Series A in Japan. That round featured Sparx, INCJ, Real Tech Fund, Development Bank of Japan, and several corporates including Japan Airlines. Total funding to date comes to $125 million.

ISpace’s core project is called Hakuto, which involves a series of moon orbiting and landing missions. This would include a four-wheeled rover mapping potential water resources in the polar regions, along with other reconnaissance work.

The rover would collect data that will inform later missions and ultimately support life and business on the moon. The company says that communications, agriculture, transportation, finance, and environmental science will all depend on extraterrestrial infrastructure in the future.

Part of the plan includes lunar tests of a water electrolysis system developed in partnership with Takasago. Water electrolysis, which splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, is used on the International Space Station to make breathable air and sugars.

ISpace has also launched a data collection initiative called Blueprint Moon, which aims to establish lunar surface development as a viable market. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance is working on lunar insurance to support the effort.

“This new investment and launch of our new lunar data offering concept will not only support the steady development of iSpace’s business, but will also prove that iSpace can lead globally in the development of the lunar economy, expanding humanity’s presence into space and creating a more sustainable world,” Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of iSpace, said in a statement.

The fresh capital will be used to develop the company’s lunar lander and fund the first two missions, which are hoped to come in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The Series A was hoped to achieve these same goals by the end of 2020.

“I think that within 10-20 years, we will see bases on the moon, and within 30-40 years, humans will go to space and back without difficulty,” Shuhei Abe, president of Sparx, told AVCJ at the time, noting the cost advantages of doing technical R&D in low gravity. “Some people might live there.”

Sparx is investing via its Space Frontier Fund, which launched in May. LPs including Toyota Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank provided an initial JPY8.2 billion ($77.6 million). The target is JPY15 billion.

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• Topics
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