Scaleup Europe Fund debuts by co-leading ICEYE's €1 billion Series F round

The Scaleup Europe Fund was established by the European Commission together with a group of European investors. Tech.eu reported it is a €5 billion vehicle intended to help European technology companies grow without relocating to the United States, targeting strategic sectors such as AI, quantum computing, space and biotech.

Founded in 2015, ICEYE operates what it describes as the world's largest and most advanced constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, which can capture imagery through cloud cover and in darkness. The company provides monitoring and intelligence services to customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management, and offers sovereign systems to governments operating their own constellations.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said the fund aims to ensure European scale-ups can find what they need to grow into world-leading companies within Europe, framing the effort as turning European innovation into a competitive advantage.

ICEYE co-founder and CEO Rafał Modrzewski said that he and co-founder Pekka Laurila met as students on an Erasmus exchange and received their first funding through the EU's Horizon 2020 programme.

Two European spacecraft, ESA's photosynthesis mission FLEX and Copernicus satellite Sentinel-3C, are set to launch together as mission teams rehearse parallel operations.