Finnish-Polish company ICEYE has been ranked among Europe’s most valuable technology companies. The company raised €450 million in a Series F funding round led by General Atlantic, reaching a valuation in excess of €10 billion. Including secondary market transactions, the value of the entire round exceeded €1bn.
The scale of the investment demonstrates the rapidly growing importance of satellite data to national security. New and existing investors include Nokia, Qatar Investment Authority, TCV and Finnish funds and financial institutions.
ICEYE specialises in SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellites, which can observe the Earth’s surface regardless of weather and time of day. It is a technology particularly valued by the military, intelligence services and institutions responsible for crisis management. The company has now built the world’s largest constellation of satellites of this type.
The new funding is to be used to expand its global operations and increase its ability to provide so-called sovereign satellite systems. This is a model in which the state gets its own space infrastructure and full control over the data it acquires. So far, seven European governments have chosen to purchase such systems from ICEYE.
Poland is also among this group. The company said that it delivered an operational space system to the Polish Armed Forces within just 12 months of signing the contract. The model is now to be replicated in more countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Financial performance is also behind the company’s rapid growth. In 2025, ICEYE exceeded €250 million in revenue and €100 million in EBITDA. Contracted but not yet recognised revenues reached €1.5bn. The company stresses that demand for intelligence from space is growing as defence spending increases and countries need to build independent surveillance capabilities.
The company also plans to increase the scale of production. It currently produces around 50 satellites a year and wants to double this number to 100 by 2028.
The story of ICEYE shows a broader trend in the space technology market. Until a few years ago, the sector was mainly associated with commercial Earth observation. Today, it is increasingly becoming part of countries’ security infrastructure. For investors, this means a new segment of the defence market, and for Europe an opportunity to build its own independent intelligence capabilities in space.
