Poland invests in the company that sold Ukraine the Prytula satellite

Poland plans to buy a stake in the Finnish microsatellite manufacturer ICEYE, writes Financial Times. This company is best known in Ukraine for the so-called people's satellite which was purchased by the volunteer foundation Serhiy Prytula in August 2022. 

According to the company's CEO Rafał Modrzewski, Poland is at the final stage of negotiations on the acquisition of a stake in ICEYE. He did not disclose the amount of investment.

Modzewski added that the Polish funding would be in addition to the $550 million already raised from investors.

Modzhevsky said ICEYE, which has already exceeded $1 billion in value, wants to expand its production capacity by at least four times to meet the growing demand for its satellites.

The Polish investment will be channelled through the National Development Bank and will be used to purchase six ICEYE satellites worth $230 million by the Ministry of Defense in May.

The ICEYE satellites use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology to provide real-time imagery regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.

The company has launched 54 satellites, each costing approximately $20 million to produce, and about half of them are operated by national defense forces, including those of the Netherlands, Finland, Brazil, and Portugal.

ICEYE also has a partnership to integrate its spacecraft into the BAE Systems satellite cluster and a joint venture with Space42 for manufacturing in the United Arab Emirates.

Modzhevsky is convinced that the demand for ICEYE satellites will continue after the war in Ukraine ends.

"The growth in [European defense] spending is so great that it will take a long time before this market is replaced by something else," says ICEYE's CEO.

According to Modrzewski, the company produces about 25 satellites a year and wants to increase this number to 100-150, which means it will need "significant additional capital" in addition to Polish investments.

In previous rounds of funding, ICEYE has received support from investors including BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, venture capital firm OTB Ventures, Seraphim Space Investment Trust, as well as government organizations such as the European Investment Bank and Solidium Oy, a Finnish state investor.

"Europe doesn't have time now for us to just grow organically. We are going to raise more financing to accelerate the growth of production capacity so that we can produce more, faster and ultimately meet demand," Modzewski said.

• ICEYE provided Ukraine with images of Russian troop movements before the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, and last year, with the support of the German government, signed memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to supply satellite intelligence to Ukraine.
• In May, ICEYE created joint venture with Rheinmetall for the production of satellites in Germany. This cooperation will give the company access to the country's growing defense budget and allow it to connect to weapons systems developed by Rheinmetall.