Finnish satellite maker ReOrbit has raised a €45m Series A, the largest of its kind for a spacetech startup in Europe, as demand for defence technology surges across Europe.
ReOrbit manufactures satellites and connected software systems that provide nations with independent communications and intelligence capabilities, while enabling them to maintain control of critical assets. Its systems serve both defence and civilian applications.
ReOrbit already has multiple orders and needs the capital to expand its manufacturing capacity, invest in technology development and grow its operations.
The funding round was led by Finnish VC Springvest, with participation from new and existing investors, including Varma, Elo, Icebreaker.vc, Expansion VC, 10x Founders, and Inventure.
“This investment enables us to meet growing demand, ensuring that nations can operate critical space systems independently and with full control,” says Sethu Saveda Suvanam, CEO and cofounder of ReOrbit.
The strength of being from the Nordics
ReOrbit was founded in Sweden in 2019 and relocated to Finland the following year.
Being based in the Nordics, it’s found, is a sweet spot for a manufacturer of strategically important technology.
“Nordic countries do not, in a good way, have the ambition to become a global power,” Saveda Suvanam says. “And we are hearing this repeatedly, that [customers] want to partner with neutral countries.”
Despite having recently joined Nato, customers still perceive Sweden and Finland as neutral, he adds, since they “don't have explicit ambitions of controlling the world.”
“In today’s geopolitical environment, reliance on external parties is a risk no country can accept. [You] don't want to be caught between Trump and Xi Jinping.”
This is also the reason why 97% of the capital in the Series A came from Nordic VCs and the rest from Germany.
“We were very clear that all of this money that we raised had to come from the Nordics,” Saveda Suvanum says.
In comparison to its compatriot (and competitor) Iceye, a maker of micro SARsatellites, ReOrbit’s satellites go beyond imagery and focus on all kinds of communications. Its satellites are also 10 times the size of Iceye’s, making its main competitors companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink, Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
One of ReOrbit’s selling points, says its founder, is that it will transfer control to its customers and make sure they can maintain strategic autonomy over the satellites. Over the next year, the startup is planning to open local satellite centres in several countries.
By the end of 2029, ReOrbit aims to have reached $1bn in contracts, which the founder says the company is on track for.
