Iceye CEO Rafal Modrzewski
Iceye
It was 2012 when Rafal Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila, two students at Finland’s Aalto University, cofounded Iceye. The company is built on top of technology that the two helped develop while they were studying – and that was the application of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to small satellites that could be built much more cheaply than traditional satellites with this imaging technology.
SAR satellites are able to capture images of the Earth’s surface using radar at very high resolutions (the more satellites, the higher that resolution gets, too). But unlike satellites that take images with cameras, SAR satellites have the advantage of being able to capture conditions on the Earth’s surface at any time day or night, and aren’t bothered by the presence of clouds. This means, for example, that during an emergency like a hurricane, the company’s satellites can detect changing conditions on the ground for the benefit of governments.
On Thursday, the Finland-based company announced that it’s closed a series D venture round of $136 million, which brings the company up to $304 million in funding to date. The round was led by venture firm Seraphim Space. Promus Ventures, OTB Ventures, Space Capital, Molten Ventures, True Ventures, C16 Ventures, the Service Group of America, the U.K.’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund and Chione Ltd also joined the round, which also added BAE Systems and Kajima Ventures as new strategic investors.
Iceye launched its first satellite in 2018, the same year Modrzewski and Laurila were named to Forbes’ Under 30 Europe list, and it’s grown quickly since. The company currently has 16 satellites in orbit, Modrzewski says, and plans to launch 9 more satellites by the end of this year. The capital from the series D round will go towards the new satellites, which the company builds itself, as well as expanding its data operations.
Over the past year, the company has been able to expand its capabilities significantly. Last May, it announced its capability of offering wide-area radar images, enabling its customers to get broad context for impacts of situations like the Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal. Then last July it announced its ability to perform change detection of areas on a given part of the Earth’s surface every 24 hours, which can help customers monitor shipping or changes caused by ongoing disasters.
The company has even moved into the hardware business and building satellites for other companies, such as its agreement with French-based MDA to add a satellite to its CHORUS constellation.
“We’ve always tried to push to the boundary of what’s possible,” says Modrzewski, 32. “Finally we got there and we’ve started releasing products that no one has really done before.”
This rapid growth and expanded capabilities are also reflected in the bottom line, Modrzewski says. Revenue growth from 2020 to 2021, he says, has been about 400%, a business result that he credits to his team of employees around the world.
“It’s really the 400 employees working hard across the globe that make this success possible,” Modrzewski says. “And I couldn’t be more proud.”
