Iwaya Giken designs, develops and manufactures high‑altitude gas balloons and airtight cabins intended for balloon‑based space sightseeing. The company positions its offering as a transformative ‘journey’ that expands awareness rather than merely traveling to space. It aims to enable broad public access to a near‑space experience via tethered or free‑flying high‑altitude balloon systems. The firm is headquartered in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and is led by CEO Keisuke Iwaya. Financially, the company reported a new ¥400M financing in December 2023 and said this brought its fundraising for the fiscal year to ¥970M. Since its seed round in August 2020, cumulative funding totals about ¥2.0B. Iwatani Giken designs, develops and manufactures high-altitude gas balloons and airtight pressurized cabins aimed at offering stratospheric sightseeing flights. The company was founded in April 2016 by Keisuke Iwatani, who studied aerospace engineering at Hokkaido University. Its test program has carried more than 35 staff in an experimental cabin for flight training and data collection, and it runs near-monthly tethered flight training at various sites. In February 2022 the company completed a 30m manned tethered flight test in Soma, Fukushima, and on July 23, 2023 executed a manned flight test that reached a maximum altitude of 6,072m with a flight distance of 26.35km and flight time of 131 minutes. Financially, the company has raised a total of about ¥1.6 billion to date, including a prior ¥400M round disclosed in June 2022 and the recent ¥570M round. Iwaya Giken (岩谷技研) is a passenger-technology development company based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, led by CEO Keisuke Iwaya. The company designs and develops high-altitude gas balloons and airtight passenger cabins aimed at enabling “NearSpace” travel experiences. Its stated mission frames space travel as a journey that expands people’s consciousness and perspective rather than merely transporting people outside the atmosphere. The company announced a third-party allotment financing on November 30, 2021. Following this round, Iwaya Giken has raised a cumulative total of about ¥600 million since its seed round. The firm is focused on continuing development of passenger systems and flight hardware for balloon-based NearSpace journeys.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Dec 2023