Ale, a Japan-based satellite technology developer that counts financial services firm Shinsei Bank among its investors, has secured an undisclosed amount in an extension to its series A round.
Tohoku University Venture Partners II, a fund run by Japanese university Tohoku University, took part in the close, as did venture capital firm Horizons Ventures and Space Frontier Fund, a vehicle for asset manager Sparx Innovation for Future.
The series A fundraising process is ongoing and the company intends to close the round at ¥2.2bn ($20.7m) by April 2022, securing cash from new and existing investors to take its overall funding to roughly $46m.
Horizons Ventures led the $11.2m first tranche of the round in September 2019, investing with Shinsei Bank subsidiary Shinsei Corporate Investment, Sparx Group, QB Capital and unnamed individuals, increasing its total funding to more than $26m.
Founded in 2011, Ale was initially working on artificial shooting stars using miniaturised satellite technology developed by Toshinori Kuwahara, an aerospace engineering professor at Tohoku University’s graduate school of engineering.
The company has since expanded its business to include space debris mitigation and atmospheric data collection.
Ale raised an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017 from Tokyo University of Science Investment Management, a vehicle sponsored by Japanese university Tokyo University of Science and operated by asset manager Astmax, which followed $6m the year before from unnamed angel investors.
