Japanese 🛰️ firm secures $100m from Pavilion Capital, others

Japan-based Synspective, a spacetech startup, has raised US$100 million in a series B funding round led by Sompo Japan Insurance, Nomura Sparx Investment, and Pavilion Capital.

Synspective’s StriX satellite / Photo credit: Synspective

Synspective develops and operates high-frequency and high-resolution synthetic aperture radar satellites to provide data analytics and solution services. Choun Chee Kong, Pavilion Capital’s head of Japan investments, said the company’s tech will be directly involved in disaster mitigation plans, and he expects it to become a “social information infrastructure” to support sustainable living.

The company said it aims to build a constellation of 30 satellites by around 2026 to better provide its services to government and commercial outfits. The company will also improve its data analysis capabilities “to realize a ‘learning world’ for a sustainable future,” added Motoyuki Arai, the company’s founder and CEO, in a statement.

The fresh capital pushes the company’s total funds raised to date to US$200 million. Synspective also said the funding pushes it to be part of Japan’s ten largest startups, citing the 2021 Domestic Startup Investment Trend Report by For Startups.

See also: These are the most active investors in Japan’s startups

Other investors in the round include:

• Mori Trust
• Space Frontier Fund (operated by Sparx Innovation for Future)
• JAFCO Group
• Japan Co-Invest III (operated by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Investment)
• SBI Group
• Nikon-SBI Innovation Fund
• Shinsei Venture Partners II (operated by Shinsei Corporate Investment Group)
• Japan Post Capital
• AS aSTART 1 (operated by aSTART)
• EEI Fund 4 (operated by Energy & Environment Investment)
• Abies Ventures Fund I (operated by Abies Ventures)
• Mizuho Growth Fund No. 3 (operated by Mizuho Capital)