Japanese lunar lander startup ispace has filed the paperwork and announced plans to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 12.
- The IPO will include 24.7M shares, with an additional 1.2M available in a secondary overallotment.
- Shares will reportedly be priced at ¥244 ($1.78) a pop, valuing the business at ¥19B ($138M).
IPO → lunar landing
- ispace’s mid-April listing date comes just weeks before the company’s historic moon landing attempt. Late last year, ispace launched its HAKUTO-R lunar lander aboard a Falcon 9.
- The spacecraft is scheduled to touch down in late April, with the company electing to take the longer gravity-assisted route.
- If ispace can nail a soft landing, it would mark the first time a privately funded enterprise has ever landed on the Moon.
Eyes on the prize: ispace could be a central player in a cislunar economy that’s expected to generate $100B over the next decade, according to estimates from research firm NSR.
The Japanese company has already secured key awards, including two NASA contracts to collect lunar regolith. Leveraging capital from its IPO and a potential first-mover advantage, ispace could continue to bulk out its order book and capitalize on the new lunar frontier.
