ICEYE is a revolutionary Finnish company, funded by the European Innovation Council, that developed and launched the world's first under-100 kilogram synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites into orbit. Its first-ever spacecraft was placed into orbit only four years ago, and since then, other 16 satellite missions have been successfully launched. But the records and achievements of this EIC-funded startup don't come only from space. This year ICEYE closed a $136 million Series D funding round, bringing its total funding to $304 million. We spoke with the CEO and Co-founder, Rafal Modrzewski, about the future of the EIC startup.
Founded in 2014 by members of Aalto University's Department of Radio Science and Engineering, the EIC-funded startup addresses the issues of reliability, timeliness and access connected to Earth Observation Data. ICEYE is changing the way we look at our world from space, thanks to the newest SAR satellite technology. ICEYE's constellation is designed to provide customers with reliable and frequent imagery enabling the rapid detection and tracking of changes on the Earth's surface, regardless of the time of the day or weather conditions. This capability is ideally suited for applications such as insurance loss adjustment, natural catastrophe response and recovery, national security, humanitarian relief and climate change monitoring.
The Series D funding round was led by the long-standing investor Seraphim Space. New strategic investors to ICEYE also include BAE Systems and Kajima Ventures. In addition, Molten Ventures, OTB Ventures, True Ventures, C16 Ventures, Chione Ltd, Services Group of America, the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Space Capital and Promus Ventures have also participated in the funding round. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as placement agent for the transaction.
A rapid expansion with an ambitious growth path
According to the CEO and Co-founder Rafal Modrzewski, this 4th funding round shows ICEYE's strong track record and investors' confidence in ICEYE's capabilities.
"We will use the new capital to grow our innovative Natural Catastrophe solutions offering and develop our leading satellite constellation and technology further, reducing time to access and increasing the visiting frequency of our satellites. We will also be making further investments towards our global growth, particularly our analytics services, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. ICEYE is determined to accelerate its growth through its solutions offering, focusing on natural catastrophe insights and monitoring", said Rafal to the EIC Community.
ICEYE designs, manufactures, and operates its SAR satellites in-house, with manufacturing timelines for a few months for its spacecraft. On January 13, 2022, ICEYE launched two SAR satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the launch also marked the first satellite built, licensed, and operated by ICEYE US. The startup received a Phase 2 grant from the European Innovation Council in 2018.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.