Series C Funding Round Nets $87 Million for ICEYE
SAR data provider ICEYE has closed $87 million in Series C funding, led by the return of True Ventures as an investor. The round also included a substantial investment contribution from OTB Ventures.
ICEYE has so far successfully launched 5 satellite missions, starting with the first ever small SAR satellite launched in January 2018. The company is launching 4 additional SAR satellites still this year and is on course to launch an additional 8 in 2021. This will grow the existing operational constellation into a capability that is unique in the World. To date, ICEYE has raised a total of $152M in financing.
"ICEYE has built a reputation of delivering on its promises for timelines and quality, while continually developing technologies that others have not been able to execute. We are very proud of that reputation, and we will continue to do our best to maintain it," said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-founder of ICEYE. "This round of investment ensures our SAR satellite constellation size continues to grow during the 2021 schedule as planned."
Helsinki, Finland-based ICEYE designs, manufactures and operates its SAR satellites in-house, with manufacturing timelines brought down to months for its spacecraft. Since the January 2018 launch of the first operational ICEYE SAR satellite, the company has been consistently delivering SAR imaging services and new capabilities to global customers, including many 'world firsts' from small SAR satellites, such as 0.25 meter resolution data and SAR video.
ICEYE intends to use this series C funding round to accelerate the size of its SAR satellite constellation in the coming years, increasing data availability for all continents through 24/7 customer operations, continuing development of ground-breaking radar imaging capabilities and for establishing spacecraft manufacturing in the US. This significantly larger than originally planned for the financing round during the economically turbulent year of 2020 is a powerful sign of trust from the financial community that ICEYE's business and operational model works and continues to deliver results.
Given the unprecedented frequency and scale of climate driven changes in the weather, crop patterns, fires, urban living and human activities, there is a growing need for real-time information access on a global scale. This access can be used for humanitarian and disaster response, towards saving lives, in addition to being utilized for economic decision making during moments of crisis.
Source: ICEYE news release. Courtesy image)