ispace Inc., a Tokyo-based lunar exploration company, announced Thursday the raise of USD 28mn in Series B funding round, bringing the total funding to circa USD 125mn since its inception.Â
The space startup raised the funding from Incubate Fund, Space Frontier Fund, Takasago Thermal Engineering Co Ltd and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co Ltd.
ispace to use the proceeds towards the development of its commercial lunar lander for its first and second missions planned to launch in 2022 and 2023, as well as to increase the size of its lander for its third mission and beyond, said the startup.
The commercial lunar lander missions are expected to provide a high-frequency, low-cost delivery service to the Moon.
In a first privately-led Japanese mission to land on the lunar surface, ispace’s first mission will perform a soft landing on the Moon, expected in 2022.
Besides planned missions, ispace launched a new lunar data business concept, Blueprint Moon, to support companies with lunar market entry by providing lunar data (i.e., imaging, environmental data, telemetry, resources information).
Previous Funding Rounds:
Founded in 2010 by Takeshi Hakamada, ispace previously had raised c.USD 95mn for its Series A funding round and USD 2mn in the Seed funding.Â
Source: AnalyzeMarkets
