WARPSPACE Inc.

WARPSPACE Inc. is a Japanese space-communications startup founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the University of Tsukuba, with a former JAXA executive joining as advisor at founding. Headquartered in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, the company also operates offices in Washington D.C. (USA, since 2021) and Frankfurt (Germany, since 2024) to support its global expansion.

WARPSPACE is developing WarpHub InterSat, a data-relay network of optical inter-satellite communication satellites positioned in medium Earth orbit (MEO, 2,000-20,000 km). Because at least one of the relay satellites is almost always in view of a ground station from that altitude, LEO Earth-observation satellites equipped with a compatible optical terminal can relay imagery and other data to the ground in near real time - the company targets delivery within 30 minutes at throughputs above 1 Gbps, versus hours-to-a-day for conventional RF downlink limited to short ground-station passes. Ground-side data delivery to end users is done in partnership with Amazon Web Services.

Alongside the relay network, WARPSPACE offers WarpON! (WarpHub InterSat Onboarding Solutions), a package of hardware and software that helps Earth-observation operators adopt optical inter-satellite links: the HOCSAI multi-protocol optical modem/router for interoperability between different optical terminal standards, and a Digital Twin System (DTS) for simulating and validating optical-comm satellite constellations before launch.

The company's heritage includes team members from Japan's OICETS ("Kirari") inter-satellite laser communication demonstration mission. WARPSPACE flew its own technology demonstrator, "Nichirin," deployed from the ISS in March 2020, and announced its first WarpHub InterSat relay satellite, "Reiho (LEIHO)," in 2021, completing its preliminary design review (PDR) in 2023. WARPSPACE has raised multiple funding rounds through a Series B (2024) from investors including KSK Angel Fund and Sompo Japan, and holds partnerships with organizations such as Synspective, LatConnect (Australia), Privateer Space (USA), and JAXA. The company has been recognized with the EY Innovative Startup award (2023) and named one of Via Satellite's "10 Hottest Satellite Companies" (2023).