Japan microsatellite developer gets $24m Series C

Sparx is investing via its Space Frontier Fund, which reached a first close last year of JPY8.2 billion against a target of JPY15 billion. It was joined by Japan Post Investment Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, electronics manufacturer Kyocera, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Investment, and 31 Ventures, a joint venture between Global Brain and Mitsui Fudosan.

Axelspace is trying to install a 10-strong microsatellite constellation that will provide imaging data with a resolution of 2.5 meters — enough to distinguish cars from orbit. The company has launched four of its 100-kilogram GRUS satellites (pictured) to date and plans to use the fresh capital to launch another five by 2023. It said in a statement that once its full constellation is intact, it will be able to monitor anywhere on earth on a daily basis.

Precision agriculture is an important application set, especially in terms of estimating the best time to harvest. The company also expects to tap emerging use-cases such as banks using yield prediction data to make lending decisions for farmers, and insurance companies calculating the amount of loss in the case of crop failure.

Increased interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues is also expected to drive uptake. Axelspace expects businesses to use satellite imagery data to prove their operations are not having negative impacts on the surrounding environment, to confirm there is no illegal activity associated with their procurement of raw materials, or to demonstrate the positive results of initiatives such as tree planting.

Axelspace raised a JPY2.6 billion Series B in late 2018 led by 31 Ventures with support from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, SBI Investment, Innovation Platform for the University of Tokyo, and Dai-ichi Life Insurance. A JPY100 million Series A closed in 2015 with contributions from Itochu Technology Ventures and Weathernews Inc. Axelspace's first satellite was a weather satellite for Weathernews, launched in 2013.

This is the fourth deployment this year for Space Frontier Fund. Investments in recent months include satellite communications technology provider WarpSpace, which was separately backed by Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, satellite data analysis player Space Shift, and Gitai, a space robot maker also backed by Global Brain.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Japan
• Japan Post Bank
• Sumitomo Mitsui
• Mitsubishi UFJ Capital
• Global Brain Corporation
• space