Can micro satellites in space help with preparing for natural disasters and identifying environmental risks? There’s a startup who believes they can.

‍What’s happening:‍

• Tokyo, Japan based micro satellites startup AxelSpace has raised $44M USD in a new Series D financing round
  
• The round saw participation from notable venture capital funds including SMBC Venture Capital Management, Epson X Investment Corporation, Global Brain Corporation and others
  

The big idea:‍

• AxelSpace builds micro satellites that are capable of providing high resolution imagery and optical data in real time from space
  
• The micro satellites built and operated by AxelSpace can be used across a variety of different applications, including agriculture, preparing for disasters, environmental monitoring and more
  
• By having the ability to cover vast areas of land and repeatedly capture a high volume of imagery of the same location, AxelSpace can provide important data around situations that would otherwise be difficult to monitor such as illegal deforestation in rainforests, the growth status of crops or identifying objects floating at sea
  

By the numbers:‍

• AxelSpace currently has 9 micro satellites operating in space
  

Going deeper:‍

• AxelSpace previously completed a technology demonstration satellite for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to validate their micro satellites as being able to compile enormous amounts of data imagery around environmental concerns such as volcanoes, fisheries and more