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Image credit: Synspective
Synspective is building a constellation system for earth observation mini-satellites employing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and integrates SAR data with a variety of ground truth data.
The Japanese startup announced today that it has secured 11.9 billion yen (over $96 million US) in a Series B round from investors as well as loans from Shoko Chukin Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.
This follows the company’s Series A round back in July of 2019, and brought their sum of funding to date up to 22.8 billion yen (about $185 million US) . Participating investors in the latest round are as follows.
- Sompo Japan Insurance
- Mori Trust
- Nomura Sparx Investment
- Pavilion Capital
- Sparks Innovation for Future
- JAFCO Group (TSE: 8595)
- Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Investment
- SBI Group
- Nikon-SBI Innovation Fund
- Shinsei Corporate Investment Group
- Japan Post Capital
- aSTART
- Environmental Energy Investment
- Abies Ventures
- Mizuho Capital
Of these, aSTART, Jafco Group, Abies Ventures, Mori and Last, and SBI Group (formerly as SBI Investment) have participated in previous rounds.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Synspective was founded in February of 2018 by CEO Motoyuki Arai and co-founder/managing director Seiko Shirasaka (Shirasaka is a professor at System Design and Management, Keio University). Arai was previously working for an American accounting firm while attending the University of Tokyo where he obtained a PhD for Technology Management for Innovation. Subsequently, he was involved in assisting Saudi Arabia to implement renewable energy systems as well as working with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to help Japanese companies expand into this region.
Synspective is building a constellation system for earth observation mini-satellites employing SAR and integrates SAR data with a variety of ground truth data. Using machine learning and other engineering techniques, the startup extracts meaning and context from the data to provide solutions to meet clients’ problems. In September of 2020, the conpany launched “Land Displacement Monitoring,” which enables millimeter-scale ground deformation monitoring over wide areas based on image analysis of SAR satellites.
The company says the latest funding allows them to further accelerate the construction of its constellation of 30 SAR satellites and its data analysis technology.
Startups in this vertical, particularly in Japan, include SAR satellite developers such as iQPS and Sigma-SAR. The former closed its Series B round in February with 4.9 billion yen (about $40 million US) in funding, which brought their cumulative sum of funding up to 8.25 billion yen (about $67 million US).
via PR Times
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