Orbital Lasers, a Japanese deep-tech company that develops lasers for use in space, announced on 19 March 2026 that it had raised about ¥3.02bn (about $20m) in a Series A round. Space Connect, Kepple and The Bridge all reported the round. The company said its cumulative equity funding since its seed round now stands at ¥3.92bn.
The money came through a third-party share allotment and J-KISS-type share subscription rights, Kepple reported. No lead investor was named, and no valuation was disclosed.
Who invested
Nine investors took part: SPARX Asset Management, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Keio Innovation Initiative, Angel Bridge, Osaka University Venture Capital, MUFG Capital, Mizuho Capital, SMBC Venture Capital and SKY Perfect JSAT.
SKY Perfect JSAT is the satellite operator from which Orbital Lasers was spun out. The seed round was not itemised in the reports, but the difference between the ¥3.92bn cumulative figure and the new ¥3.02bn implies about ¥0.9bn raised before this round.
Space Connect's headline framed the raise as a step toward what it called the world's first private business built on space lasers. That is the publication's framing rather than a claim in the company's financial disclosures.
What Orbital Lasers does
The company was set up in January 2024 as a carve-out from SKY Perfect JSAT. Tadanori Fukushima is its representative director and chief executive. It develops space-use lasers that it describes as high-output, compact and highly efficient.
Two applications drive the business. The first is satellite-mounted lidar for high-precision measurement of terrain and altitude. The second is the removal and orbit control of space debris using lasers. The Bridge reported that the company plans a lidar satellite constellation designed around small satellites.
The company is building three core technologies in parallel: beam transmission, light reception for high-resolution sensing, and a satellite bus optimised for the mission.
Space Connect also summarised the company's technology as high output, compact and highly efficient, a description the other two outlets repeated.
Government and research ties
The Bridge reported that Orbital Lasers has a contract with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) covering the conceptual design of an altitude lidar satellite and a prototype of a mission component. It also holds a research contract with Japan's Ministry of Defense, signed in November 2025, on monitoring and protecting the country's satellites in orbit.
Kepple added that the company does joint research with RIKEN, and that it aims to become a global leader in space optics in the 2030s.
What the money is for
Space Connect said the funds are planned for advancing the transmission and reception systems at the core of the laser technology, for development integrated with satellite systems, and for research and development toward demonstration missions.
Kepple quoted the chief executive as saying that the round would deepen and expand the transmission, reception and satellite bus technologies and establish a foundation for achieving advanced missions as a system. That wording is a translation from Japanese and is paraphrased here.
Headcount and the company's address were not given in the reports reviewed, and this article therefore does not name a city.
Company website: orbitallasers.com