Two European space companies announced multi-hundred-million dollar funding rounds this morning.
- Finnish EO company ICEYE announced a €450M ($520M) Series F raised at a €10B ($12B) valuation. With a secondary placement, the total Series F funding round is €1B+ ($1.16B).
- German launcher Isar Aerospace raised a €270M ($312M) Series D, just ahead of the planned qualification flight for its Spectrum rocket this month.
ICEYE deep dive: General Atlantic led ICEYE’s Series F, which also included participation from Solidium, Tesi, Varma Capital, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, and Nokia. The company will use the money to increase ICEYE’s global reach, grow its intelligence capabilities, and scale to meet sovereign demand for in-space data.
The round follows ICEYE’s €150M ($175M) raise at a €2.4B ($2.8B) valuation in December.
Isar deep dive: Isar’s round included participation from Island Green Capital, Molten Ventures, HV Capital, Lakestar, UVC Partners and KfW Capital. The company highlighted the “substantial contributions” from European investors, signaling the continent’s commitment to sovereignty in orbit.
The funding will allow the launcher to scale production of its Spectrum rocket, which is expected to embark on its qualification flight from Norway’s Andøya Space launch complex during a window that will open between June 15 and 21.
The big picture: European space companies secured €1.4B ($1.6B) in 2025, including €1.2B ($1.4B) from VCs, according to a report released last month by the European Space Policy Institute. These two raises alone—totaling €720M ($832M), excluding ICEYE’s secondary placement—are more than half of that total, suggesting the European space VC sector is poised to break some records in 2026.
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