Redefining Space-Based Intelligence in Europe
ICEYE Secures New Financing, Led by General Catalyst
Funding has been secured by ICEYE to accelerate the company’s delivery of sovereign satellite systems and data intelligence services. The new financing, led by General Catalyst, has broad pan-European participation.
“Ministries and intelligence agencies can secure borders via on-demand imagery, while nations seeking full control can deploy their own turnkey satellite missions.”
Rafal Modrzewski, ICEYE
ICEYE has secured €150 million (≈$174 million) in new funding, as well as a €50 million (≈$58 million) secondary placement, valuing the company at €2.4 billion (≈$2.8 billion). The Series E round was led by General Catalyst, with strong pan-European participation, including A.P. Moller Holding in Denmark, Bpifrance in France, Vinci (BGK Group) and RiO Family Office from Poland, as well as Finnish investors Solidium, Ilmarinen, European Tech Collective, Keva, Lifeline Ventures, Tesi, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and Peter Sarlin.
The new capital builds on ICEYE’s strong momentum, powering the continued growth of its SAR constellation and the accelerated deployment of sovereign satellite systems, advanced sensing capabilities, and data intelligence services.
“ICEYE’s SAR technology has become a core strategic and tactical tool for governments and institutions worldwide. Our team has a strong track record of turning advanced SAR technology into concrete results for customers who need answers in minutes, not days,” said Rafal Modrzewski, Co-Founder & CEO of ICEYE. “This funding enables us to deepen that commitment by investing in the expansion of our world-leading SAR constellation, next-generation sensing capabilities, and data intelligence services that help governments and organizations manage risk and respond faster. For European nations and allies, that means greater control over their own space-based intelligence – and a partner capable of delivering at industrial scale.”
“Europe’s security starts with sovereign space capability. ICEYE enables that, with the world’s largest SAR constellation, software-defined satellites, and fully sovereign missions that put independent visibility back in Europe’s hands,” said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Managing Director and Head of Europe at General Catalyst. “Ministries and intelligence agencies can secure borders via on-demand imagery, while nations seeking full control can deploy their own turnkey satellite missions. That’s why we see ICEYE as a rising global space prime.”
SAR uses radar pulses that pierce clouds, smoke, and darkness, providing a continuous view of the Earth that supports rapid response for defense and intelligence, security, disaster response and recovery, insurance, maritime monitoring, and finance.
ICEYE is accelerating the shift to software-defined satellites with its fourth-generation platform, which delivers the world’s highest-fidelity commercial SAR imagery of up to 16 cm (≈6 inch) resolution. The ICEYE platform is engineered so new capabilities can be deployed via software updates from the ground rather than hardware refresh cycles.
With 62 satellites successfully launched to date, the company plans to scale up to an average production rate of one satellite per week starting next year, deploying sovereign space capability for allied nations at unprecedented speed and scale.
Impressive strategic pivot here. The notion of sovereign satellite systems as a service basically sidesteps the traditional aerospace procurement bottleneck that's crippled European space defense for decades. What's clever is how they're framing software-defined payloads not just as tech differentiation but as a way to de-risk long hardware refresh cycles for government buyers. I wonder if the 1-satellite-per-week production target is realisitic tho, given supply chain constraints on RF componenets. That's an aerospace-grade manufcturing tempo, not exactly SpaceX territory yet.