About Astart
Astart is a venture capital firm founded in 2015. It is primarily based out of Minato City, Japan. As of Jul 2026, Astart is an active investor, having invested in 9 companies, with 1 new investment in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in Japan based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from High Tech to Enterprise Applications and Life Sciences. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of ZeamiCyberSecurity Overall, Astart portfolio has seen 2 IPOs, namely Astroscale and Synspective. A lot of funds co-invest with Astart, with names like Shinsei Corporate Investment sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Astart has team of 5 people including 3 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 2 more
Portfolio IPOs
Deals in last 12 months
Astart's List of Top Investments
Astart has a portfolio of 9 companies. Their most notable investments are in Connected Robotics and Pale Blue.Their portfolio spans across and Japan. They have invested in High Tech, Enterprise Applications, Life Sciences and 6 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 2 more. Here is the list of top investments by Astart:1. Astroscale
Developer of satellite solutions for space debris removal. It provides users with an end-to-end rendezvous solution, which consists of two spacecraft to be launched stacked together. It leverages proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism, while another has a docking plate for capturing the debris. It also developed a micro-lite satellite for the in-situ debris environment awareness missions.
Key facts about Astroscale
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Sumida City (Japan)
- Annual Revenue: $10M - $50M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $384M
- Employee Count: 482 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: SBI Investment, Mistletoe and 43 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Oct 06, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Public
2. Synspective
Provider of cloud and AI-based satellite imaging data. It integrates data from the synthetic aperture radar satellite constellations and big data sources. It has applications in land displacement monitoring, flood damage analysis, solar potential area mapping, and facilities monitoring.
Key facts about Synspective
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Koto City (Japan)
- Annual Revenue: $10M - $50M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $244M
- Employee Count: 197 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: SBI Investment, Nomura and 24 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jun 19, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Public
3. Pale Blue
Provider of water-based propulsion systems for spacecraft. It designs and develops water resist jet thrusters, water ion thrusters, vacuum chambers, and thrust stands. These thrusters use electron cyclotron resonance to develop water plasma that acts like a thruster.
Key facts about Pale Blue
- Founded Year: 2020
- Location: Kashiwa (Japan)
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $33.2M
- Employee Count: 24 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Global Brain, Incubate Fund and 15 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Aug 07, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. REXEV
Key facts about REXEV
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: Chiyoda City (Japan)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $12.8M
- Investors: Osaka Gas, Toshiba Corporation and 10 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Oct 13, 2021, $*****
Provider of AI-based food preparation robotic arms. Its core products include the soba robot - a food boiling robot, french fries robot, soft service robot, AI inspection software, hot snack robot, and more.
Key facts about Connected Robotics
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: Koganei (Japan)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $8.76M
- Employee Count: 19 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Global Brain, Sony Innovation Fund and 20 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Feb 28, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Astart's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Astart has invested in 9 companies over the last 8 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 5 years. In 2025, it made 1 investment, while as of Jul 2026, it has made 1 investment in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in ZeamiCyberSecurity and most recent follow-on round was in Pale Blue.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2025 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2024 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2022 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2021 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2018 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Astart's Investments by Stage
Astart has made 4 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $7.1M, 2 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $7.76M, 2 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $54.2M and 1 investment in Series E stage with an average round size of $51M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 4 |
Series A | 2 |
Series B | 2 |
Series E | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Astart's Investments by Sector
Astart has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the High Tech, Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech, Business Services, Energy and Enterprise Applications. Notably, it has invested in 7 Tech companies, 5 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 3 Tech hardware companies and at least 1 company focusing on Consumer (B2C).Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
High Tech | 5 |
Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech | 3 |
Business Services | 1 |
Energy | 1 |
Enterprise Applications | 1 |
Others | 4 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Astart's Investments by Geography
Astart has made most investments in Japan (8).Astart's recent investments
Astart has made 1 investments in 2026 so far - ZeamiCyberSecurity.Here are the most recent investments by Astart:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 13, 2026 | - | Seed | 2715 | ||
Aug 07, 2025 | Japan | Series C | 1057 | [+4] | |
Oct 21, 2024 | Japan | Seed | 8551 | ||
Jun 04, 2024 | Japan | Series B | 7655 | [+6] | |
Feb 01, 2023 | Japan | Seed | 1530 | [+1] |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in Astart's Portfolio
2 of Astart's portfolio companies have become public. Synspective got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), in Dec 2024 at marketcap of $265M and Astroscale got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) at marketcap of $495M.Here are Astart's portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 19, 2024 | Mar 28, 2022 | Series B | 6735 | |
Jun 05, 2024 | Oct 13, 2020 | Series E | 1310 |
Team profile of Astart
Astart has a team of 5 members including 3 Partners and 1 Principal. Astart's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of all team members in Astart:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | - | - | - | |
Partner | - | - | - | |
Partner | - | - | - | |
Principal | - | - | - |
Co-investors of Astart
Over the past 8 years, 126 investors have co-invested in Astart's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Astart: SBI Investment, JAFCO Group and 35 others have invested in rounds before Astart. There are 2 companies where SBI Investment has invested before Astart and 2 companies where JAFCO Group has invested before Astart.
- Top Co-investors of Astart: 33 investors entered a company along with Astart. These include investors like Shinsei Corporate Investment (2 companies).
- Invested after Astart: A total of 56 investors have invested in Astart's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Shoko Chukin Bank (2 companies), Shizuoka Bank (2 companies) and JFC (2 companies).
Recent News related to Astart
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Oceanic Constellations Raised Approximately JPY 2 Billion in Series B RoundTHE BRIDGE•Feb 13, 2026•Coral Capital, Astart, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, Globis Capital Partners and 5 others
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Astart launches SpaceTech III Fund and @Tech III Fund – AUM reaches 17.5 billion yenTHE BRIDGE•May 23, 2024•Astart
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Japan's aStart launches second dedicated space tech fundAsian Venture Capital Journal•Oct 19, 2020•Astart
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Astroscale raises $51 million in Series E, $191 million overallSpaceNews•Oct 13, 2020•Astroscale, Astart, Hulic, I-NET and 3 others
