ispace Next mission: lunar exploration Also announced: 10 billion yen in funding

ispace, a space venture company working to realize lunar resource development business, held its "ispace Next Mission" presentation event on December 14 at the Kanze Noh Theater within the GINZA SIX commercial facility in Tokyo.

ispace is known for operating "HAKUTO," the only Japanese team competing in the "Google Lunar XPRIZE," the first human lunar exploration race. With the vision of "expanding humanity's habitat into space and creating a sustainable world," it aims to commercialize lunar resource development.
At the event, the company announced its future plans and a large-scale fundraising initiative.

From left: ispace's Mohamed Ragab, COO Takahiro Nakamura,
Mr. Hakamada, and CTO Kazuya Yoshida

Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada noted that the HAKUTO project is entering its final phase and highlighted the rapidly growing global interest in the space industry in recent years. He revealed that the next steps will involve launching two missions: "lunar orbit" and "lunar surface exploration."
The company plans to launch Japan's first privately developed lunar lander. Mission 1 aims to place it into lunar orbit by the end of 2019. Mission 2, scheduled for around the end of 2020, will involve a soft landing on the lunar surface, followed by resource exploration for water and other elements using a rover.
From 2021 onward, ispace intends to commercialize services transporting survey equipment and other items for space-related companies. It also outlined plans to offer services that can be leveraged for corporate marketing, such as displaying partner company logos on the probe, and to monetize various lunar data.
ispace 2040 Vision Movie: https://youtu.be/wwBZwxdMrDs

Lander (Transport Vehicle) Concept Model

On December 13, the company completed a third-party allotment of new shares to 11 new shareholders (Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings (TBS), Konica Minolta, Shimizu Corporation, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Dentsu Inc., Real Tech Fund, KDDI, Japan Airlines, and Toppan Printing) to raise the necessary funds for these plans. The total funding raised, including future additional investment by the Sparks Group, amounts to approximately ¥10 billion.
This funding round is the largest Series A investment (an investment round for product planning/development and associated technological development in startups) ever raised domestically and also the largest Series A investment globally in the space sector.

From left: Mr. Nakao, Mr. Anayama, Mr. Tsuchida

INCJ Managing Director Masayuki Tsuchida, DBJ Managing Executive Officer Makoto Anayama, and TBS Executive Officer in charge of the President's Office Masashi Nakao took the stage. They referenced the investment background, the significance of lunar exploration, and their respective business models while expressing their hopes for the mission's success.
Mr. Hakamada stated, "We aim to leverage the knowledge and networks of the institutional investors and corporate investors who participated in this round to pioneer lunar water resource development and realize a world where the economy thrives in space."
ispace Official Website: https://ispace-inc.com/jpn/