ICEYE Raises $34M in Series B Financing and Confirms Nine Satellite Launches by End of 2019
Latest round builds on year of explosive growth for Earth observation company, fast-tracks launches for SAR satellite constellation
HELSINKI, May 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ICEYE, an Earth observation company providing synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data, today announced $34M Series B funding led by return investor True Ventures and supported by Draper Network VC funds and others. Building on ICEYE's recent aerospace industry achievements, the Finland-based SAR data company will use the new capital to expand its custom analytics services for its growing customer base, further develop its SAR satellite technology, as well as fund additional launches of ICEYE SAR satellites.
ICEYE's Series B funding round includes financial backing from previous investors True Ventures, Draper Nexus, Draper Associates, Seraphim Capital and Space Angels. The funding round is joined by new ICEYE investors OTB, Tesi, Draper Esprit and Promus Ventures. To date, ICEYE has raised a total of $53M, including government financing from Finland and the EU's Horizon 2020 program.
"This funding secures our goal of deploying the world's largest SAR satellite constellation before the end of next year," said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-founder, ICEYE. "I'm most excited for our customers, who can now start to make their plans a reality."
In January, ICEYE successfully completed a historic landmark in aerospace by becoming the first organization in the world to launch a SAR satellite with a launch mass of under 100kg. With darkness or clouds covering two-thirds of the planet at any given time, SAR technology delivers reliable imaging even when optical imaging cannot. Providing timely imaging data to both governments and commercial entities, ICEYE is helping its customers solve some of the world's toughest challenges in sectors such as the maritime industry, disaster management, insurance, finance, security and intelligence.
"ICEYE is developing and deploying SAR satellite technology that has been dreamed about for decades, but which was thought to be impossible to deliver," said Rohit Sharma, venture partner at True Ventures and ICEYE board member. "We are excited to accelerate our three-year-old partnership with ICEYE and lead their current round of financing as they continue to change the way Earth observation data is gathered, analyzed, and delivered."
Following the January 2018 launch of ICEYE-X1, ICEYE is launching two additional satellites this year. ICEYE is aiming for a total of 9 upcoming satellite launches by the end of 2019 and is actively seeking out launch operators to continue the company's rapid acceleration towards the future.
About ICEYE
ICEYE empowers others to make better decisions in governmental and commercial industries by providing access to timely and reliable satellite imagery. The company is tackling this crucial lack of actionable information with world-first aerospace capabilities and a New Space approach. ICEYE's radar satellite imaging service, with coverage of selected areas every few hours, both day and night, helps clients resolve challenges in sectors such as maritime, disaster management, insurance, finance, security and intelligence. ICEYE is the first organization in the world to successfully launch synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites with a launch mass under 100 kg. For more information, please visit: www.iceye.com
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With more than $1.4 billion under management, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. The firm maintains a strong community that supports founders and their teams, helping True companies achieve higher levels of success and impact. To date, True has helped more than 250 companies launch and scale their businesses, creating over 10,000 jobs worldwide. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com.
About Draper Nexus
Draper Nexus is an early stage venture capital fund focusing on Enterprise Tech and Hardware/Industrials. We bring a collaborative approach to work with entrepreneurs who are harnessing technology and data to transform and unlock value in established industries. We leverage our Corporate LP/industry relationships in Japan and the global reach of the Draper Venture Network to create a customer development advantage for our portfolio companies. For more information, please visit: www.drapernexus.com
About Draper Associates
Draper Associates is an early stage venture capital firm founded by Tim Draper. We invest across industries with a focus on startups that use decentralization and automation to transform industries. Our investments include Coinbase, Ledger, ICEYE, Verge Genomics, AI Motive, Neurala amongst others. For more information visit: www.draper.vc
About Seraphim Capital
Seraphim is a London-based venture capital fund manager. Seraphim invests at Series A stage into IP-led businesses that have the potential to redefine large existing markets or create entirely new ones. Seraphim's latest fund, the Seraphim Space Fund is the world's first specialist space-tech venture fund. We focus on backing both space and aerial platforms collecting and communicating data from above, in addition to the broader enabling technologies that support the full space-tech ecosystem. The $90M fund has pioneered a multi-corporate venture fund model, harnessing the collective experience and expertise of leading space industry players including the likes of Airbus, SES and Telespazio to provide the start-ups the fund invests in with unparalleled access to and guidance from the top echelons of the space sector. Our team includes entrepreneurs who have scaled space-tech companies to billions of users and $billion-valued exits, alongside experienced venture capitalists who collectively have invested in more than 200 early and growth stage companies. For more information, please visit: www.seraphimcapital.com
About Draper Esprit
Draper Esprit is one of the most active venture capital firms in Europe, developing and investing in disruptive, high growth technology companies. We believe the best entrepreneurs in Europe are capable of building the global businesses of the future. We fuel their growth with long- term capital, access to international networks and decades of experience building businesses. We back ambitious teams including Revolut, Trustpilot, Graze, Ledger, Transferwise and Graphcore. In order to provide entrepreneurs with a more flexible approach to funding and to back them for longer, we re-invented the traditional venture capital by ourselves going public in 2016. www.draperesprit.com
About Space Angels
Space Angels is the leading source of capital for early-stage space ventures. Founded in 2007, our portfolio includes many of the most prominent entrepreneurial companies in the sector. Through a robust and streamlined web platform, Space Angels provides unparalleled deal access and comprehensible intelligence to its accredited investor members, making it easy to discover, select, and invest in the most compelling space startups. For more information, please visit: www.spaceangels.com
About OTB
OTB Ventures with over 20 years of partners' international VC and entrepreneurial track record, is a leading venture capital firm in Central & Eastern Europe investing in early growth, post product, high-tech start-ups with unique technologies. OTB Ventures typically provides series A funding to empower and support talented entrepreneurs to scale their businesses globally, while keeping strong focus on technology advancement. www.otb.vc
About Tesi
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a venture capital and private equity company that accelerates companies' success stories by investing in them directly and via funds. Tesi always invests together with other investors, providing them with access to high quality deal-flow in Finland. Our investments under management total €1.2 billion and we have altogether 700 companies in portfolio.
https://www.tesi.fi/ @TesiFII
About Promus Ventures
Promus Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Chicago and San Francisco investing in deep-technology software and hardware companies. The firm has invested in more than 65 private technology companies, including areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, space systems, robotics, computational biology, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, computer vision, security/defense, healthtech, fintech, virtual reality/alternative reality and others. For more information, find Promus Ventures at promusventures.com and @promusventures.
SOURCE ICEYE
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