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A subsidiary of Toyota Mobility will invest $44.3 million in a Japanese rocket company.
Interstellar Technologies (IST) is expected to receive a multimillion-dollar investment from Woven by Toyota in the “early end” of its Series F fundraising round, the rocket company said on Tuesday. It also announced a “business alliance” with Toyota.
IST said it “aims to leverage the capabilities of the automotive industry, including Toyota’s manufacturing methods, to transform rocket production into a high-quality, cost-effective, and risk-free process.”
The Toyota logo is photographed in Brussels on March 4, 2024. (REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo / Reuters Images)
“We are very happy to work with Interstellar Technologies in the mass production of rockets,” said Toyota CEO Hajime Kumabe, Woven by Toyota. “This business alliance will enhance Toyota Group’s manufacturing capabilities and combine our expertise to improve rocket production and advance the mobility revolution.”
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As part of the capital and venture, Woven will appoint a director of the IST board and support rocket production by strengthening supply chains and corporate governance, the IST statement said.
The announcement came after Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda’s speech at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday, where he gave updates on the company’s experimental Woven City project, which was announced in 2020.
“The future of mobility should not be confined to the Earth, or to one car company,” said Toyoda. “We’re talking about the sky, we’re also exploring rockets.”
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Toyota’s investment is not the first time Toyota and Interstellar have collaborated. The companies have been conducting “staff exchanges” since 2020, the rocket startup said.
The announcement came after a speech by Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday. (Photos by Piotr Swat/SOPA/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In its Tuesday announcement of a planned investment of $44.3 million, Interstellar noted that the Japanese government wants to achieve 30 rocket launches per year “by the early 2030s” to “meet the growing demand for domestic and international launches.”
Last year, three rockets were launched in Japan, according to Interstellar.
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The rocket company said in August that its Series E fundraising efforts had brought in 3.1 billion yen in funding. That round included a third-party allotment of shares, according to its press release from the time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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