ICEYE is Scaleup Europe Fund’s first bet
After much anticipation, The European Commission has completed the final legal steps to establish the Scaleup Europe Fund, and has made its first big bet on Finnish company ICEYE. The Scaleup Europe Fund has co-led ICEYE’s recently announced €1 billion Series F funding round, which includes a €450 million primary investment at a valuation exceeding €10 billion.
ICEYE, one of Europe’s leading providers of sovereign intelligence from space, owns and operates one of the world’s largest and most advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite constellations and currently delivers end-to-end sovereign systems for seven European governments. ICEYE recently delivered a fully operational sovereign satellite capability to Poland less than twelve months after contract signing, setting a new benchmark for deployment speed.
The company was founded in Finland in 2014. It has built a strong European footprint, with significant operations in Finland, Poland, Spain, and Greece, and has recently expanded further with the establishment of new European entities in Germany and Portugal.
“Our first investment reflects exactly what the Scaleup Europe Fund was created to support: ambitious European founders building globally competitive companies in strategically important technologies. ICEYE has already established itself as a category leader, and we’re excited to partner with Rafał and the team as they continue scaling from Europe to the world,” commented Victor Englesson, Partner at EQT and Co-Head of the Scaleup Europe Fund.
“Europe has the talent, technology, and ambition to build globally leading companies in strategically important industries. Our own journey reflects that. My co-founder Pekka Laurila and I met as students on an Erasmus exchange, received our first funding through Horizon 2020, and we are grateful for the European Commission’s role in initiating the Scaleup Europe Fund. We are pleased to welcome EQT as a long-term partner through the fund, as we continue to expand our sovereign intelligence capabilities from Europe for customers across Europe and globally,” commented Rafał Modrzewski, Co-Founder and CEO, ICEYE.
The ICEYE investment reflects the core strategy behind the Scaleup Europe Fund: backing Europe’s most promising technology companies across fields such as AI, quantum computing, dual-use technologies, clean energy, space technology, biotechnology, and medical innovation. The fund was created to help close Europe’s persistent growth capital gap, supporting companies working on strategically important technologies so they can expand globally while keeping their roots in Europe.
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