IVS2026, Japan’s largest startup conference, wrapped after three days in Kyoto under the theme “Japan is Back,” per the organizing committee’s closing release . Some numbers from the recap: 13,000 attendees, more than 4,000 meetings booked through the event’s matchmaking system, and over 360 official side events across the city.
Space Quarters won the LAUNCHPAD grand prize for its space-construction robotics; Akari Hosho and MUSE took second and third. SATELYX competed in the same LAUNCHPAD field, one of four international finalists out of fifteen; our pitch is covered in more detail in Kepple’s event report .
This was also the year IVS introduced IVS CORE, an invitation-only area for decision-makers, and a referral-ticket system, a first for a Japanese startup conference of this size.
SATELYX builds flight-proven, shared-mission infrastructure for teams that don’t want to re-qualify what’s already been proven in orbit. More at satelyx.com .