ispace is a Japanese lunar exploration company that aims to provide low-cost and frequent transportation services to the Moon. They specialize in designing and building lunar landers and rovers for payload delivery and data collection. ispace has partnerships with organizations like JAXA and ESA, and their customers include government space agencies, research institutions, and private companies. The company's vision is to expand human presence beyond Earth by enabling the utilization of lunar resources.
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ispace’s Series B round provided sufficient funding for Mission 1, which is scheduled to launch in 2022.
ispace planned to apply the new Series C funds toward its second lunar mission, which is planned to launch in 2023.
Series C investors in ispace included Incubate Fund, Innovation Engine New Space Industry Investment Limited Partnership, Innovation Engine POC No.2 Investment Limited Partnership, SBI 4+5 Investment LLP, SBI 4+5 Investment LLP No. 2, Katsunori Sago, an investment vehicle managed by HiJoJo Partners, AIZAWA Investments Co., Ltd., and Ariake Secondary Fund II LP managed by Aizawa Asset Management Co., Ltd.
ispace’s Series C funding total included bank loan financing that was announced in June 2021.
ispace contracted approximately $46,000,000 (USD) from seven investors for its Series C investment round.
ispace launched a lunar data business concept to support private sector companies with lunar market entry.
ispace planned to use Series C funds to increase the size of its lunar lander for its third mission, which is planned to launch in 2024.
Incubate Fund began investing in ispace at the company’s 2014 seed round.
On its first mission, ispace’s lander will deliver payloads for the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and three companies awarded under the Canadian Space Agency’s Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program.
ispace’s first mission lander was undergoing final assembly at an ArianeGroup facility in Germany and was planned to launch from the United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
ispace’s cumulative total funding reached approximately $195,500,000 (USD) including past equity rounds and bank loan financing.
Mission 3 will use a larger lander being developed in ispace’s U.S. office and is planned to launch in 2024.
ispace raised $28,000,000 in a Series B round nearly one year before the Series C financing.
iSpace raised $173,000,000 in a Series B funding round last year.
iSpace conducted a launch of a Hyperbola-1 four-stage solid rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at around 15:50 local time (3:50 a.m. Eastern) on 2021-08-03.
The first Hyperbola-1 rocket successfully sent a satellite into orbit in July 2019, making iSpace the first private Chinese launch company to achieve orbit.
The ispace flight model lander will be shipped from Germany to the United States for launch in the second half of 2022.
ispace raised approximately $33,100,000 (USD) in its Series B funding round.
The Mission 1 ispace lander payload manifest includes an AI flight computer by Mission Control Space Services that will collaborate with the Rashid rover.
ispace engineers have been working at the Ariane Group facility in Lampoldshausen alongside Ariane Group personnel since early June 2021.