Propulsion

University of Tokyo spin-out Pale Blue completed a ~$10M Series C (¥1.5bn), receiving its first investment from Mitsubishi Electric's ME Innovation Fund. Mitsubishi Electric makes and operates satellites — making this a strategic CVC play positioning Pale Blue as a preferred propulsion partner. Other investors include aStart, Nissay Capital, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, and Itochu Technology Ventures. Total raised to date reaches approximately $30M.

Mumbai-based Manastu Space raised $3M in seed funding to commercialize its I-Booster green propulsion system, which replaces toxic hydrazine with hydrogen peroxide. IIT Bombay co-founders Tushar Jadhav and Ashtesh Kumar developed the technology from a student satellite project with ISRO. The I-Booster delivers 50% higher efficiency than conventional thrusters and is under evaluation by both ISRO and DRDO.

Pale Blue was awarded a grant of up to $27M (JPY 4 billion) from Japan's Ministry of Education MEXT under the SBIR-3 program to develop and demonstrate miniaturized water-based ion and Hall-effect thrusters for space debris mitigation by fiscal 2027. The three-phase grant covers fundamental design, ground verification, and in-orbit demonstration, targeting 10-100 kg class satellites with the ion thruster and 100-500 kg class with the Hall-effect thruster.