ICEYE, the company behind the world's most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation, has secured a landmark funding round.
The round comes at a time of strong growth for the Finnish company, led by Polish co-founder and CEO Rafal Modrzewski. In 2025, ICEYE crossed €250 million in revenue and €100 million in EBITDA — making this a raise from a position of strength, not necessity.
Just six months after closing a Series E at a €2.4 billion valuation, ICEYE has returned with a Series F valuing the company at over €10 billion — a more than fourfold increase in half a year.
A strong mix of Finnish institutional investors joined the round, including Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen and Lifeline Ventures — alongside Nokia, Qatar Investment Authority and TCV. As resilience and national security increasingly converge, the diverse investor base reflects growing recognition that sovereignty and commercial access to space-based intelligence are no longer optional.
Nokia, joining as a new strategic investor, underlined this shift. "Modern defense increasingly depends on combining trusted connectivity with real-time visibility," said Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard. "Nokia and ICEYE bring complementary strengths that can help advance Europe's defense, resilience and technological sovereignty."
The company has made a breakthrough in the space industry and dual-use technologies. It's satellites can capture images through clouds, day and night, enabling continuous, subdaily monitoring of changes on the ground.
To date, ICEYE counts seven European governments among its clients — each with their own sovereign satellite system, a scale no other European provider has reached. The startup is building its globally recognized footprint, scaling satellite production from 50 to 100 units annually by 2028, supported by a contracted backlog of more than €1.5 billion in future revenue from already signed deals.
Most recently, ICEYE delivered a fully operational satellite system to the Polish Armed Forces within 12 months of signing, a timeline reported to be among the fastest sovereign space deployments in history.
Two Students, One Nanosatellite
The Finnish startup was founded in 2014 by Rafal Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila as a spin-off of Aalto University. The two met at Aalto while working together on Aalto-1 — Finland's first nanosatellite, where the idea for ICEYE took shape. Modrzewski, born in Poland, studied Electrical Engineering at Warsaw University of Technology and later at Aalto. While he oversees the overall vision and organizational growth, Laurila, as CSO, directs the company's strategic initiatives and commercial operations.
The company's original focus was Arctic maritime logistics, monitoring sea ice in conditions where traditional satellites are blind, and that's where the name ICEYE comes from. Not only have they devoted their time to developing the world's largest SAR constellation, but they are pioneers in miniaturizing SAR satellites under 100kg. In 2025, Modrzewski and Laurila were awarded Software Entrepreneurs of the Year in Finland — a recognition that underscores their journey from a university project to a €10 billion company in just 12 years.
For Europe's dual-use space sector, ICEYE's Series F reflects a broader shift toward sovereign intelligence capabilities built and controlled within the continent. Modrzewski said, "Sovereign intelligence from space is entering a new era and the window to build it is now."
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