USD 87M in Series C for
ICEYE to Continue Conquering Boundaries in Radar
Satellite Imaging
Sept. 22, 2020
ICEYE announced the closing
of a larger than planned for $87M Series C
funding, led by the return investor True
Ventures, with 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."
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
financing 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 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.
ICEYE has provided
commercial radar satellite imaging worldwide for
data users starting from 2018, for ICEYE's
customers to respond to oil spills, hurricanes,
deforestation and many more use cases. Along
with these active customer imaging operations,
the ICEYE SAR satellite constellation has seen
an unprecedented development cycle of new
imaging capabilities and new spacecraft
generations.
Adam Niewiński, co-founder
and Managing Partner of OTB Ventures, said:
"We are pleased to be a cornerstone investor in
the latest round of venture funding for ICEYE.
We are thrilled to be part of the evolving
ecosystem where even the sky is no longer the
limit."
ICEYE's Series C includes
participation from return investors True
Ventures, OTB Ventures, Luxembourg Future Fund
(LFF), Finnish Industry Investment (Tesi),
Draper Esprit, DNX, Draper Associates, Seraphim
Space, Promus Ventures and Space Angels. The
funding round is joined by New Space Capital.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has
participated both as advisor to Luxembourg
Future Fund and as investor through its
financing mechanism InnovFin For Equity (IFE).
Further, a significant portion of Tesi's
investment is part of the EFSI investment
program set up between Tesi and the European
Investment Bank. Coinciding with ICEYE's Series
C funding, OTB Ventures today announced the
launch of a dedicated investment vehicle to
support Europe's leading space technologies -
OTB Space Program I – backed by the European
Investment Fund (EIF).