A British satellite company has raised £30 million in a fundraising backed by the Nato Innovation Fund, as Britain steps-up efforts to catch-up with America in the space race.
SatVu, which uses satellites to provide high-resolution thermal imagery from space, said that its latest funding round has given it £60 million to establish its constellation of satellites.
The London-based company has two satellites planned for orbit this year and an additional three under contract. Launching multiple satellites is crucial to deliver “persistent, scalable thermal intelligence”, the company said.
It provides high-resolution thermal intelligence for the government and private defence customers, allowing for “the detection and assessment of operational change across complex and contested environments”.
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Aside from the Nato fund, the latest financing round was backed by the British Business Bank, SPARX Asset Management and Presto Tech Horizons, and follows a government-backed defence innovation loan last year.
The Nato Innovation Fund was launched in 2022, backed by 24 Nato allies including the UK. It was the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund and invests in science and engineering startups to “strengthen the defence, security and resilience” of member nations.
Other existing investors, including Molten Ventures, Adara Ventures, Ridgeline Ventures, NOA, Lockheed Martin, Seraphim Space Investment Trust, and Stellar Ventures, also participated in the round.
Tobias Reinicke and Anthony Baker, co-founders of SatVu
Anthony Baker, SatVu’s co-founder and chief executive, said the investment would allow it to “scale a UK-built, sovereign thermal capability into a multi-satellite constellation supporting government customers in the UK and across Allied nations worldwide”.
“From monitoring critical infrastructure and military supply chains, to detecting covert activity and verifying what others cannot, thermal intelligence is essential to modern intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance,” he added.
The latest funding round would strengthen the company’s ability “to deliver at scale, accelerating our strategy and increasing our agility to respond to evolving defence and security requirements — positioning SatVu to be the partner of choice for nations that cannot afford uncertainty in an increasingly contested world,” he said.
At the end of January, the company had secured £6 million in pre-orders ahead of the launch of its second satellite.
Luke Pollard, a defence minister, said the government was “committed to strengthening national security by scaling British SMEs and startups which help keep the UK’s defence industry at the cutting edge of innovation”.
The capital injection into SatVu comes as Britain and Europe try to keep pace with America in satellite technology.
The US Senate Committee on Commerce passed legislation this month to speed up the approval of new satellites, while Eutelsat is trying to advance Europe’s satellite capabilities.