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ICEYE Ltd. (natively ICEYE Oy) is a Polish-Finnish
microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain Sequence motif, DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organ ...
manufacturer and operator. ICEYE was founded in 2014 and is now the world's largest synthetic aperture imaging radar constellation. It is originally a spin-off of
Aalto University Aalto University (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economic ...
's University Radio Technology Department, and is based in
Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...
and has offices globally (Finland, Poland, Spain, the UK, and the US) and over 700 employees globally. In September 2024 the company reported 2023 revenues of $100M and expanded its funding to $503M. The CEO and co-founder of ICEYE is Rafał Modrzewski.


History

In 2015, ICEYE demonstrated that
synthetic-aperture radar Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target region to provide fine ...
could be used to monitor hazardous ice features such as
pack ice Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...
. In 2019, the founders of ICEYE and Aalto staff involved were awarded the Finnish Engineering Award by the
Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK (, ) is a Finnish trade union of university-educated engineers, architects and scientists. In addition, the TEK is a learned society and the professional body of the engineering profession. The un ...
The achievement was called "a breakthrough in Finnish space technology" in the award citation. In October 2019, ICEYE started offering commercial access to its 1-metre resolution SAR-imagery, and operated 3 SAR satellites. In December 2020, ICEYE sold two satellites (X18, X19 or X20) to the
Brazilian Air Force The Brazilian Air Force (, FAB) is the air branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces and one of the three national uniformed services. The FAB was formed when the Brazilian Brazilian Army Aviation (1919–1941), Army and Brazilian Naval Aviation, Nav ...
, these satellites were launched in May 2022 on SpaceX's Transporter-5 mission. The Brazilians named these satellites Carcará 1 and Carcará 2. In August 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, ICEYE signed a contract with the Serhiy Prytula
Charity Foundation Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
that would give the
Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...
access to one of its satellites. In May 2025, Poland signed a deal with ICEYE to acquire three radar satellites, with the contract valued at approximately €200 million. The agreement also includes an option to purchase three more satellites and expand the ground infrastructure within the next year. As part of the partnership, ICEYE works with Polish industry to deliver an advanced platform for the country's armed forces, enabling near real-time mission control, data access, and analysis for intelligence and surveillance operations. The company has launched a total of 38 satellites as of August 2024. In December 2024 it launched two more and in January 2025 it launched four more, bringing total launched satellites to 44.


Business

The company launched as an earth observation data provider with its own satellite constellation that has the ability to revisit locations on earth in hours and can do imaging in all weather conditions. With top use cases including "border monitoring, site activity monitoring, port monitoring, maritime domain, deforestation monitoring, sea ice and oil spills". From 2022, in addition to its own constellation data, the company offered entire satellite launches to customers, saying "''Governments and large multinational corporations are able to purchase their own radar imaging satellites from ICEYE and operate them independently, or arrange ICEYE to manage the spacecraft exclusively on their behalf''". It has bespoke packaged solutions for Insurance and Government domains to assist in flood and wildfire insights and improve disaster response.


Funding and financial performance

Upon demonstrating the solution for monitoring pack ice in 2015, ICEYE received a €2,4M grant from the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
's Horizon 2020 programme for SMEs with the goal "''to integrate, pilot test and demonstrate the ICEYE SAR system in its final form as a microsatellite in order to attract private investment for launching.''" In August 2017, ICEYE raised $13 million in capital, including from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovations. On May 24, 2018, ICEYE raised $34M in Series B led by return investor True Ventures and supported by Draper Network VC funds and others. The company said it will use the 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"''. In September 2020, ICEYE raised $87M in Series C led by return investor True Ventures, with a significant additional investment by OTB Ventures. With the funding the company seeks to establish manufacturing in the US and build on existing capabilities (such as 0.25 meter resolution data and SAR video and demonstrated record time data deliveries of 5 minutes). On February 3, 2022, ICEYE raised $136M to increase the size of the constellation and strengthen "''the growth of ICEYE's Natural Catastrophe (NatCat) Insights and Solutions offering''". On 17 April 2024, ICEYE announced that it had closed an oversubscribed $93 million growth funding round. The round was led by Finnish sovereign wealth fund Solidium Oy and saw participation from Move Capital Fund I, Blackwells Capital, Christo Georgiev, and existing investors. The total funding raised is at $438M as of April 17, 2024. On December 18, 2024 another $65 million funding round extension was announced. The company reports annual revenues of $100M for FY 2023.


Satellites

On 12 January 2018, a
PSLV-XL The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites i ...
rocket on
PSLV-C40 PSLV-C40 was the 42nd mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) program in the XL configuration. PSLV-C40 successfully carried and deployed 31 satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits. Overview Two Surrey Satellite Technology sate ...
mission carried ICEYE-X1 (also known as ICEYE POC1, COSPAR 2018-004D; POC stands for "
Proof Of Concept A proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is an inchoate realization of a certain idea or method in order to demonstrate its feasibility or viability. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete ...
") into orbit from the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre – SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport is located on an isl ...
. ICEYE-X1, at 70 kg, was the first satellite under 100 kg to carry a
synthetic-aperture radar Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target region to provide fine ...
, and was the first Finnish commercial satellite. The second satellite, ICEYE-X2 (ICEYE POC2, COSPAR 2018-099AU) was launched into orbit on 3 December 2018, at 18:34
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
by a
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, human-rating certification, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. I ...
rocket. The launch took place from the Vandenberg,
SLC-4E Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) is a launch and landing site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S. It has two pads, both of which are used by SpaceX for Falcon 9, one for launch operations, and the other as Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) for S ...
. The third ICEYE X payload was launched on 5 May 2019 on an
Electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...
rocket from
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 (also known as Mahia Launch Complex or Spaceport) is a commercial spaceport located close to Ahuriri Point at the southern tip of Māhia Peninsula, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is owned and o ...
, in New Zealand. The payload, called ICEYE-X3, was integrated into the Harbinger satellite (the satellite is also known as ICEYE X3, ICEYE POC3, COSPAR 2019-026E), a proof-of-concept prototype for a York Space Systems' S-class
satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...
. The Harbinger was launched on its demonstration mission, and the payloads integrated into the satellite included the ICEYE X3, BridgeSat's optical communications payload and Enpulsion of Austria's Field Emission Electric Propulsion system. The launch was conducted as the STP-27RD mission of the
Space Test Program The Space Test Program (STP) is the primary provider of spaceflight for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Outline of space science, space science and technology community. STP is managed by a group within the Advanced Systems and De ...
(STP) of the
United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command The United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) is the Army Service Component Command (ASCC) for United States Strategic Command and United States Space Command. It was established in 1985 as the Army Strategic Defense Command ...
, who sponsored the launch. The ICEYE-X3 radar payload had communications issues related to bus communications. These were reportedly solved. The fourth and fifth satellite, ICEYE-X4 (COSPAR 2019-038D) and ICEYE-X5 (COSPAR 2019-038C) were launched on 5 July 2019 by a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from
Vostochny Cosmodrome The Vostochny Cosmodrome () is a Russian space launch facility in the Amur Oblast, located above the 51st parallel north in the Russian Far East. It was built to help reduce Russia’s reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome which is located on lan ...
Site 1S. The next launch occurred on September 28, 2020, with
Soyuz-2-1v The Soyuz2.1v (, GRAU index: 14A15) was a Russian expendable small-lift launch vehicle, developed as a derivative of the Soyuz-2 series. It is notable for omitting the four strap-on boosters common to other R-7 family rockets, making it the fi ...
from
Plesetsk Plesetsk () is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Plesetsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated about northeast of Moscow and south of Arkhangelsk. Municipally, it is the administrative center ...
. This put ICEYE-X6 and ICEYE-X7 satellites into orbit. On 24 January 2021, three new satellites (ICEYE-X8, ICEYE-X9 and ICEYE-X10) were launched from
Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...
SLC40 as part of record setting
Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...
Flight 106 (i.e. Transporter-1 mission). One of these, the ICEYE-X10, is actually a US-built version of the ICEYE satellites developed by R2 Space for the
US government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...
and has been renamed XR-1. The cooperation between SpaceX and ICEYE continued with 6 more satellites launched with Falcon 9 Block 5 rockets, 4 on 30 June 2021 as part of the Transporter-2 mission (ICEYE-X11, ICEYE-X12, ICEYE-X13 and ICEYE-X15) and 2 on 13 January 2022 as part of the Transporter-3 mission (ICEYE-X14 and ICEYE-X16). Another 5 have been launched on 25 May 2022 as part of Transporter-5 (ICEYE-X17, X18, X19, X20 and X24) and 3 on 3 January 2023 as part of Transporter-6 (ICEYE-X21, X22 and X27). Unfortunately, out of those last three satellites only two are currently in orbit while ICEYE X22 failed to separate from the rocket upper stage representing the first loss of a satellite for ICEYE. Four more satellites (ICEYE-X23, X25, X26 and X30) have been launched on 12 June 2023 on SpaceX's Transporter-8 mission and another four (ICEYE-X31, X32, X34 and X35) on 11 November 2023 on SpaceX's Transporter-9 mission. Three more satellites were launched on March 4, 2024. That brings the total number of ICEYE satellites launched to 34. Another four satellites were launched on August 16, 2024, which brought the launched satellite total to 38. In December 2024 it launched two more and in January 2025 it launched four more, bringing total launched satellites to 44.


Military operators


Client of data from ICEYE's satellite constellation

This section lists the clients of data packages that are coming from the satellites operated by ICEYE. ;
Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG () is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was promoted to the DAX, Germany's leading stock market index, in March 2023. It is the largest German and fifth largest Europe ...
: Rheinmetall cooperates with ICEYE to exploit the data accumulated by the constellation of satellites. Rheinmetall has exclusive rights to distribute satellite and satellites data in Germany and Hungary to private and public clients. ;
Saab AB Saab AB (originally , , acronym SAAB), with subsidiaries collectively known as the Saab Group (), is a Swedish aerospace and defense company, defence company primarily operating from Sweden. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, but its de ...
: MoU signed in March 2025 for a cooperation to integrate space imagery data to command and control systems from Saab. ; (financed by ) : ICEYE-Rheinmetall provides the access to the constellation of satellites to Ukraine, which is financed by the German ministry of defence. This decision was made in November 2024.


Current operators

; (4) : Four satellites ordered by the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force. : The first satellite was put in orbit in June 2025, with the Transporter-14 rideshare mission with SpaceX. : The model selected has a 25 cm resolution. It includes a fixed ground segment with antenna, and a mobile ground segment. The imagery intelligence will be driven by AI.


Future operators

; (tbd) : Letter of intent signed to purchase satellites signed in June 2021. : The number of satellite is undefined yet. The model selected has a 25 cm resolution. ; (3) : In May 2025, Poland signed a contract to buy ICEYE satellites as part of its MikroSAR program. : A first batch of three satellites was confirmed. The model selected has a 25 cm resolution.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Espoo Spacecraft manufacturers Remote sensing companies Synthetic aperture radar satellites Space program of Finland Technology companies of Finland