Foundational emerged from stealth with £8.2 million in pre-seed funding to automate and scale Satellite Laser Ranging technology. The London-based company said the financing represents the largest pre-seed round raised by a European space technology company to date. BACKED, Final Frontier, Adjacent, Type One Ventures, and Inflection participated in the financing.
Foundational develops Satellite Laser Ranging systems designed to determine the position of satellites and orbital debris with millimeter-level precision.
The company is addressing the growing challenge of tracking objects in Low Earth Orbit as satellite deployments and space debris increase.
The European Space Agency’s 2026 Space Environment Report tracked approximately 45,000 objects in orbit at the end of 2025.
ESA also estimated that roughly 1.5 million pieces of debris measuring between one centimeter and 10 centimeters are in orbit, with objects of that size potentially capable of destroying operational satellites.
Foundational is building a vertically integrated Satellite Laser Ranging network that combines retroreflectors mounted on satellites, automated ground stations, and its Origin software platform.
Origin processes and distributes the resulting tracking data.
Foundational said its ground stations are fully automated and weatherproof and cost approximately 30 times less than legacy facilities.
The company’s network is already operational.
Its systems can track objects with millimeter-level precision at distances of up to 2,000 kilometers during both day and night using eye-safe lasers.
Foundational is onboarding early customers through Origin and its API.
The company already supports missions involving commercial satellite constellations, the European Space Agency, the U.K. government, aerospace manufacturers, and research institutions.
Foundational was founded in 2025 by Hira Virdee and Dave Gooding and builds on laser-ranging technology previously developed at Lumi Space.
KEY QUOTE:
“By automating and scaling Satellite Laser Ranging, Foundational helps operators identify collision risks, plan safer manoeuvres and make better use of their spacecraft. But the opportunity goes beyond tracking satellites: at scale, these measurements can help us build better models of atmospheric drag, re-entry and the wider environment around Earth, creating a new generation of commercial geodetic data products.”
Hira Virdee, Co-Founder and CEO of Foundational
