Japan space debris start-up Astroscale gets $109m Series F

There were 15 investors in total, the company said in a statement. Among the others were Energy & Environment Investment, DNCA Investments, Innovation Engine, Opus, Solaris ESG Master Fund, Prelude Structured Alternatives Master Fund, Chiba Dojo, and Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office, which was launched by the founding family of Nintendo.

Seraphim, which claims to be the world’s first listed fund focused on space technology, contributed $12.5 million, according to a filing. It brings Astroscale’s total funding to more than $450 million, AVCJ Research’s records show. It follows a $191 million, two-tranche Series E in October 2020 that featured aStart and Sparx Group’s Space Frontier Fund.

Founded in 2013 by Mitsunobu Okada, Astroscale is the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits, Seraphim said. It is headquartered in Japan and has subsidiaries in the UK, US, Israel, and Singapore, employing 250 people overall.

The company develops orbital machines for hazardous satellite debris removal activities, including rendezvous, docking, and proximity operations. In March, an inaugural demonstration mission launched in Kazakhstan, said to be the world’s first commercial mission to prove the core technologies necessary for space debris docking and removal.

The mission craft comprises two satellites stacked together: a servicer designed to safely remove debris from orbit and a client satellite that serves as a piece of replica debris. In August, the servicer satellite completed a release and magnetic docking test with the client. This will be followed by demonstrations of tumbling capture and of loss, relocation, and recapture from far range.

Demand for the service is expected to rise as launch costs decline and space industry activity increases, causing disruptive scrap material congestion to worsen. Notably, increasing satellite traffic is expected to exacerbate collisions and breakups that create further space debris. Astroscale intends to offer transportation, inspection, extension-of-life, and removal services.

While there is currently no binding international treaty regarding the mitigation of space debris, national licensing bodies have started imposing stricter requirements on operators. There are also several government awards supporting debris mitigation, with Astroscale selected for a European Space Agency and OneWeb initiative as well as a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency project.

This month, Astroscale was one of 10 signatories to the Net Zero Space Declaration, committing to implement concrete measures to reduce the amount of space debris by 2030. It has also released a docking plate intended to facilitate satellite removal or on-orbit servicing.

"The long-term sustainable health of the space sector is becoming ever more important with tens of thousands of satellite launches planned in the coming years. Astroscale is already the category leader in the global on-orbit servicing market,” said Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Space.

“The ball is now firmly rolling on regulation and self-regulation to protect the space environment. We believe that now is the optimum time to invest into this emerging market that will be worth billions over the coming decades."

Okada said the new funding would “dramatically accelerate” Astroscale’s ability to make on-orbit servicing routine by 2030, expand regional facilities for mass production, and recruit global talent.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Japan
• Growth capital
• space