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Interstellar aims to emulate SpaceX's business model with vertical integration of launch vehicles and communications satellites.
Interstellar Technologies, a Japanese rocket developer, is to receive $44.3 million from Toyota Group company Woven.
The investment is part of a larger strategic capital and business alliance with Toyota aimed at the “mass production of rockets,” the Hokkaido, Japan-based startup said on Jan. 7.
Interstellar Technologies is seeking to emulate SpaceX’s vertical integration strategy by manufacturing launch vehicles and communications satellites in-house. The company has launched a small suborbital rocket to space and in 2025 reportedly plans to launch its two-stage Zero rocket for the first time. The Zero is a small orbital-class rocket that can carry an 800-kg payload to low Earth orbit. Interstellar is also working on a reusable heavy lift rocket, named Deca, that would start operations in the 2030s.
“Interstellar aims to leverage automotive industry expertise, including Toyota’s production methods, to transition rocket manufacturing into a high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable process,” the startup says.
The company has been collaborating with Toyota Motor Corp. since 2020, with 11 employees from the carmaker participating in a personnel exchange. The alliance between the two companies is focused on cost reduction, shortening lead times and creating a mass production system for rockets.
Woven is a Toyota Group company focused on next-generation transportation technologies. The company is building a “Woven City” near Mount Fuji where new mobility technologies can be tested, including autonomous cars and electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxis from Toyota’s partner Joby Aviation.
As part of the business alliance, Woven will contribute about $44.3 million (¥7 billion) as the lead investor in Interstellar’s first close of its Series F round. Interstellar expects an additional, undisclosed funding amount to be infused by Woven at the second close of its Series F round. Woven will also take a director seat on Interstellar’s board.
Toyota and Interstellar both hint that the partnership’s long-term goal goes beyond launch vehicles and satellites and is aimed at human transportation.
“We are exploring rockets too because the future of mobility shouldn’t be limited to just Earth,” Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda said during a presentation at CES in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.
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