Astroscale, a Japan-based satellite servicing provider backed by University of Tokyo, has completed a $109m series F round that included insurance group Axa’s Life Insurance subsidiary, hiking its overall funding to $300m.
The round was led by a Japan-based investment vehicle called The Fund and also featured Seraphim Space Investment Trust, DNCA Finance’s Invest Beyond Global Leaders fund, Japan Growth Capital Investment Corporation and IE Fast And Excellent.
Energy & Environment Investment’s EEI Fund 4 filled out the investors with Innovation Engine, Opus, Y’s Investment, Solaris ESG Master Fund, Prelude Structured Alternatives Master Fund, Chiba Dojo and Yamauchi-No 10 Family Office.
Astroscale services orbital satellites as well as retrieving them when they are taken out of commission and clearing orbital debris. It also provides situational awareness to satellites can be tracked.
Nobu Okada, founder and chief executive of Astroscale, said: “This latest round of funding will dramatically accelerate our ability to make on-orbit servicing routine by 2030.
“It also shows that investors around the world, acknowledge the tremendous potential in the emerging on-orbit servicing market, which will revolutionise the future of space.”
University of Tokyo’s UTokyo Innovation Platform was among the participants in Astroscale’s series C round, which closed at $80m in 2019.
Astroscale subsequently added $51m in an October 2020 series E round led by aStart and backed by real estate developer Hulic, data centre manager I-Net, construction firm Shimizu and Sparx Innovation for Future’s Sparx Space Frontier Fund.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing. Photograph courtesy of Nasa.
