• Axelspace

  Participated · Series C · May 2021

  Axelspace Holdings offers a one-stop service for microsatellites via its AxelLiner service and operates the AxelGlobe Earth-observation platform. The company handles satellite design, manufacturing, launch arrangement, and post-launch operation support for microsatellites and related components. Axelspace emphasizes proprietary microsatellite technology and end-to-end in-orbit operations expertise. The firm aims to advance its vision, “Space within Your Reach,” by expanding commercial and co-created offerings in aerospace and aviation. Recent strategic share acquisitions by corporate venture funds are intended to accelerate business expansion and new business co-creation with industry partners. Axelspace is headquartered in Tokyo and was established in March 2020. Axelspace develops, builds, launches and operates microsatellites and provides Earth-observation services such as AxelGlobe. The company currently operates a proprietary microsatellite constellation of five satellites and has developed and operated nine microsatellites in total, including a JAXA technology demonstration satellite. Axelspace offers full-scale microsatellite services to public and private sector customers and is developing an integrated one-stop service called AxelLiner, whose demonstration satellite is expected to launch in early 2024. The company is also working on constructing optical data-relay satellite constellations to expand its service capabilities. Axelspace says it will use the new funds to meet more diverse customer demands and accelerate societal applications of microsatellites. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company positions itself to expand both AxelGlobe and AxelLiner offerings. Axelspace builds and operates GRUS small satellites that collect panchromatic imagery at 2.5-meter resolution and multispectral bands (red, blue, green, near-infrared and red-edge) at 5-meter resolution. It sells 2.5-meter pan-sharpened images through AxelGlobe, a web-based platform. The company launched its first 100-kilogram satellite in 2018 and sent four more satellites into sun-synchronous orbit in March. With the planned five additional satellites funded by the Series C round, Axelspace aims to field a ten-satellite constellation in 2023 to obtain daily imagery of mid-latitude regions including Japan. Axelspace emphasizes capturing large areas in a single image—about 57 kilometers across and up to 1,000 kilometers vertically—to simplify client analysis compared with mosaicked data. The firm has about 80 employees, more than 50 of whom are engineers from around the world.

No current team members are available.