Letara raises ¥2.6B Series A for plastic-fuelled space engines

What's the deal? Letara, a Hokkaido UniversityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → spinout developing hybrid chemical propulsion for spacecraft, has raised ¥2.6 billion (about $16.4 million) in a Series A round. The round was backed by Frontier InnovationsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, through its Frontier Innovations No.1 Investment Limited Partnership.

What's the endgame? Letara builds hybrid chemical thrusters that burn solid plastic as fuel — an approach it says combines safety, high thrust, economy, and re-ignition capability. The Sapporo-based company is a registered JAXA partner startup.

Why now? Satellite and space-transport launches are rising, and demand for in-orbit mobility is growing with them. That is fuelling appetite for safe, high-thrust propulsion systems that Letara aims to supply.

What's the context? This is a follow-on investment. Frontier Innovations first backed Letara in 2025; since then, the company advanced from STS to PCA phase under NEDO's deep-tech startup support programme and won orders from both public and private clients.

Frontier Innovations, chaired by chief executive officer Tatsuhiko Nishimura, invests hands-on in seed and early-stage technology ventures. It works with anchor limited partner JAXA to back space startups.

The signal: At ¥2.6 billion, Letara's round sits in the 93rd percentile of all-time Series A deals in Japanese deep tech, based on a sample of 291 rounds. That places it among the larger early-stage bets in a sector where government and private capital are increasingly aligned behind space-transport infrastructure.

Read more: PR Times

Image credit: NASAKennedy