About Us
Company overview
- Company Name
- ispace, inc.
- Founded
- September 2010
- Number of Employees
- 282 (as of March 31, 2024)
- Capital Stock
- JPY 7,775,500K (as of March 31, 2024)
- Management
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Takeshi HakamadaFounder & CEOJumpei NozakiDirector & CFORyo UjiieCTOKenichi ImamuraCPO
- Board of Directors
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Representative DirectorTakeshi HakamadaFounder & CEO, ispace, inc.DirectorJumpei NozakiCFO, ispace, inc.External DirectorTohru AkauraGeneral Partner & Co-Founder, Incubate Fund KKExternal DirectorKoichi KawanaPresident and Representative Director, Lublyst Inc. (Ex-Representative Director, President, JGC CORPORATION (Current JGC Holdings Corporation))External DirectorKazuko NakadaRepresentative Director, actuali inc. (Ex- Managing Director, LIFENET INSURANCE COMPANY)External DirectorKojiro HatadaPresident and CEO, Innovative Space Carrier Inc. (Ex-Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)External DirectorTakashi MakinoAdvisor, IHI Corporation (Ex-President, IHI AEROSPACE Co.,Ltd.)Standing Audit &
Supervisory MemberYuji InoueAudit & Supervisory Board Member, ispace, inc.External Audit &
Supervisory MemberAgasa NaitoPartner, at Tanabe & PartnersExternal Audit &
Supervisory MemberYoshihide TodorokiCPA, TODOROKI Accounting Firm (Ex-Partner, KPMG AZSA LLC.) - Business Overview
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To construct a sustainable Earth and Moon ecosystem implementing space resources:
・Marketing Support for Space Content Industries
・Sale and Survey of Moon Surface Data
・High Frequency Lunar Transport
・Payload Development for Lunar Orbiting and Landing
・R&D for Space Resource Development
Management Team
Takeshi Hakamada
Founder & CEO
Jumpei Nozaki
Director & CFO
Ryo Ujiie
CTO
Kenichi Imamura
CPO
Bio
Takeshi Hakamada
Founder & CEO
Inspired by Star Wars as a child, Takeshi Hakamada set out to pursue a life focused on space exploration. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, where he was involved in the conceptual design of next-generation aerospace systems. Starting in 2010, while working for a management consulting firm, he worked part-time to lead the Japanese team, HAKUTO, one of the finalists for the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, and changed the team’s management to ispace, inc. As Founder & CEO of ispace, Takeshi has raised record fundraising for the company and is now leading a multinational commercial lunar exploration program, known as HAKUTO-R. An active proponent for the commercial space industry, Takeshi is guiding ispace to continuously challenge itself to enable humans to establish a sustainable ecosystem between the Earth and the Moon by unlocking the utilization of space resources.
Bio
Jumpei Nozaki
Director & CFO
After graduating from the University of Tokyo with a B.A. in Social Psychology, Jumpei worked for over ten years at a securities firm, focusing mainly on the automotive and oil sectors, where he advised clients on fundraising, IPOs, and M&A. Through the course of working alongside individuals in top management, he sensed a major change in the times, which led him to join ispace and take part in such a major transformation that occurs only once in a century. As Director and CFO at ispace, he is mainly responsible for financial and capital management. He has also been involved extensively in laying down the foundation of the company’s internal management, including finance and accounting, human resources, and general affairs, and in 2017, raised 10.35 billion yen ($97.6MM USD), one of the largest Series A financing rounds ever raised in the space sector. Reflecting back on his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, he feels a peculiar connection to his path in life.
Bio
Ryo Ujiie
CTO
Ryo Ujiie, currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ispace, inc. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in geophysics from Tohoku University in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and M.S. degree in engineering and management from MIT in 2016. He started his professional career at JAXA in 2009 as a software/simulation engineer, was involved in software-independent verification and validation of multiple flight projects, and was engaged in software engineering, Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) simulation, and system safety design research projects until 2015. After graduating from MIT in 2016, he initiated several Multi-disciplinary System Design Optimization research projects at JAXA. In 2017, he became a member of the HTV-X (a JAXA unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft) project team and was primarily involved in GNC tasks and NASA interface management. In 2018, he started his new career at ispace as Deputy Project Manager/Lander System Engineering Group Manager before being appointed CTO in June 2022.
Bio
Kenichi Imamura
CPO
Prior to joining ispace, Mr. Imamura served as Executive Officer and General Manager of the Human Resources Department for Z Holdings, Inc. In addition, he held multiple senior positions for Recruit, Inc., in Japan, the United States and the Netherlands. Mr. Imamura graduated from the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at the University of Tokyo.
Lunar Advisory Board
Jean-Jacques Dordain
Mr. Dordain was the sixth Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) and was reappointed twice to the role by the ESA Council, serving in the role from 2003-2015. He has served in numerous government and academic roles throughout his career including the Executive Secretary of the Evaluation Committee of the Japanese space agency NASDA. In addition, he has received awards from several European governments for his service including the National Order of the Legion of Honour from the president of France. In addition, he has served as an honorary Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation and Chancellor of the International Space University.
Yoshinori Komiya
Mr. Komiya served in Japan’s Ministry of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (formerly the Ministry of International Trade and Industry) for three decades, serving as the Director-General for Space Affairs, Minister’s Secretariat of the Cabinet Office. In this role oversaw the revision of Japan’s Basic Plan for Space Policy and the formulation of the Space Activities Law and the Satellite Remote Sensing Law. In 2016, he was appointed Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office.
Tom Ochinero
Mr. Ochinero is a former senior executive with SpaceX, serving as senior vice president of commercial business. During his nearly 10 years with the rocket and spacecraft company, he oversaw significant expansion seeing SpaceX become the world’s leader in commercial space launch missions. He has previously held the role of chief executive officer for an advanced engineering firm and was a Sales Trader for Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. Currently, he is serves as a Co-Founder & General Partner of Interlagos Capital.
Alan Stern
Dr. Stern is a former NASA Associate Administrator and principal investigator of NASA New Horizons mission to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the farthest space exploration of worlds to date. In addition to serving as a commercial astronaut and served on the U.S. National Science Board, while twice being named to the Time 100 list of most influential people. He has written and edited numerous scientific and technical papers and articles and authored multiple books. Currently, he maintains his own aerospace consulting.
Company Base
History
ispace was the managing company of Team HAKUTO, one of the 5 finalists in the Google Lunar XPRIZE Competition, which was organized by the XPRIZE Foundation and sponsored by Google, called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back to Earth high-definition video and images.