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Toyota's Mobility subsidiary will invest $44.3 million in a Japanese rocket company.
Interstellar Technologies (IST) is set to receive a multi-million dollar investment from Toyota “to the first close” of its Series F fundraising, the rocket company announced on Tuesday. It also announced that it has a “business alliance” with Toyota.
IST said: “It aims to leverage the expertise of the automotive industry, including Toyota production methodsto turn rocket manufacturing into a high-quality, cost-effective and scalable process.”
The Toyota logo is pictured in Brussels on March 4, 2024. (Reuters/Yves Hermann/File photo/Reuters photo)
“We are excited to partner with Interstellar Technologies on the mass production of the rocket,” said Hajime Kumabe, CEO of Woven by Toyota. This business alliance leverages the Toyota Group's extensive manufacturing capabilities and combines our expertise to advance rocket production and further transform mobility.
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As part of linking capital and business, Won will appoint a director to the IST board and support rocket manufacturing by strengthening supply chains and corporate governance, IST said in a statement.
The announcement follows Toyota president Akio Toyoda's speech at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday, when he gave an update on the company's Woven City pilot project, which was announced in 2020.
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Woven by Toyota Investment is not the first time that Toyota and Interstellar have worked together. The rocket startup said the companies had been “swapping personnel” since 2020.
The announcement came after Toyota President Akio Toyoda spoke at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday. (Piotr Swat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In its Tuesday announcement of a planned investment of $44.3 million, Interstellar indicated that the Japanese government wants to achieve that. About 30 rocket launches in the year “to the early 2030s” in order to “meet the growing demand for supply at home and abroad.”
According to Interstellar, three rockets were launched in Japan last year.
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The rocket company announced in August that Series E fundraising efforts It brought in ¥3.1 billion in funding. That round included a third-party equity allocation, according to a press release at the time.
Reuters contributed to this report.