Nobu founded Astroscale in 2013 due to a desire to address the growing threat of space debris. He used his personal funds and hired a team in Singapore, Japan, UK, and US whilst raising capital of 140M USD as of October 2019.

Nobu is the co-chair of The Future of Space Technologies Council, World Economic Forum and is also a member of the International Astronautical Federation and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Prior to founding Astroscale, he was an IT entrepreneur and executive. Nobu has a B.S. from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from Purdue University.

When he was a teenager, Nobu attended a camp at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center where he met Japan’s first astronaut, Mr. Mamoru Mohri. He received the handwritten message, “Space is waiting for your challenge.” and he has been inspired to work on space ever since.