ICEYE announced that Business Finland, the country’s public innovation agency, has approved a €28.3 million continuation grant, representing the final tranche of a previously announced major research and development investment program.
The funding comes as European nations increase investments in sovereign defense, national resilience, border security, maritime security, and disaster response. ICEYE said the grant will support the development of next-generation synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, software platforms, and AI-enabled intelligence capabilities designed to meet growing demand from allied governments and defense organizations.
The R&D program will focus on enhancing ICEYE’s sensing capabilities, expanding data collection capacity, and improving AI-driven analysis. The company is also working with European command-and-control system integrators to advance multi-source data fusion technologies.
ICEYE continues to scale its satellite operations rapidly. Since 2018, the company has launched 72 satellites and recently achieved a production rate of one satellite per week. The company is targeting an annual production capacity of 100 satellites by 2028, with plans to launch 25 satellites in 2026 and more than 50 in 2027. ICEYE said continued investments in research and development, manufacturing facilities, and talent are essential to sustaining this growth.
The company’s software-defined satellites provide commercial SAR imagery with resolutions of up to 16 centimeters and a field of regard extending to 400 kilometers. ICEYE’s sovereign intelligence platform combines satellites, ground infrastructure, AI-enabled processing, and analytics to provide persistent situational awareness regardless of weather conditions or time of day.
In addition to the grant, ICEYE recently secured a €300 million revolving credit facility to support production expansion, technology development, and deployment of sovereign space-based intelligence capabilities.
KEY QUOTES:
“Business Finland’s continued support reflects ICEYE’s strong execution and the progress achieved under the R&D program. Together, we are strengthening Finnish expertise, scaling domestic R&D, and accelerating technologies that enhance national resilience, situational awareness and sovereign capabilities.”
Pekka Laurila, Co-founder And Chief Strategy Officer, ICEYE
“Business Finland supports ambitious risk-taking and shares the risk, funding is often provided in stages. The results of the first phase of ICEYE’s large project have been achieved, and it is great to be able to move forward with the continuation funding. This grant decision of €28 million is a testament both to ICEYE’s capabilities and to the position of Finnish technology development at the international forefront.”
Lassi Noponen, Director General, Business Finland
