Open Cosmos raises €300m for satellite manufacturing and AI
Open Cosmos has closed a €300 million funding round to accelerate the build-out of its satellite manufacturing capacity and expand its suite of intelligence and connectivity services. The Oxford-headquartered company, founded in 2015, has attracted a broad investor syndicate led by Lightrock and ETF Partners, with participation from Entrepreneurs First, Institut Català de Finances, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Phoenix Court, Convex Group and two undisclosed major international pension funds.
The proceeds will be deployed across three platform pillars: ConnectedCosmos, which provides sovereign broadband and IoT links between satellites and the ground; OpenConstellation, a shared satellite constellation that Open Cosmos says can reduce Earth observation (EO) delivery times from up to 48 hours to as little as 30 minutes; and DataCosmos, which converts imagery and sensor data into near-real-time operational intelligence using onboard AI processing.
The business case
Open Cosmos reports five consecutive years of profitable growth and more than $370 million in customer contracts signed over the past three and a half years, with clients spanning European governments, space agencies, and large energy and infrastructure operators. The company currently operates four manufacturing facilities across the UK, Spain, Portugal and Greece and says it can produce one satellite per day at current capacity, a throughput figure that is rare among European primes.
Founder and chief executive Rafel Jorda Siquier framed the opportunity in infrastructure terms: "Space infrastructure is becoming as critical as energy, digital networks and transport. The real value comes from the intelligence that relays what's happening on Earth in real time and the global connectivity to deliver it." The UK Space Minister, Baroness Lloyd, described the round as "a landmark investment" and a vote of confidence in the UK's space sector, referencing the government's updated UK Space Strategy.
Market context and competitive landscape
The timing reflects a sharp acceleration in global space investment. Open Cosmos cited figures showing venture capital deployment into the sector reached $11.3 billion in the first half of 2026, already exceeding the $10.1 billion recorded across all of 2025. European sovereign demand is a significant driver: governments across the continent are prioritising domestically controlled communications and EO infrastructure to reduce strategic dependence on US and other non-European providers.
Open Cosmos competes in a market that includes established satellite operators, hyperscaler-backed constellation projects, and a wave of well-funded European startups targeting similar vertically integrated models combining manufacturing, launch access, and data services. The company's stated differentiators are its manufacturing scale, mission success rate to date, and the integration of sensing, connectivity and AI into a single platform stack rather than point solutions.
The involvement of NSSIF alongside commercial investors reflects growing UK government appetite to co-invest in dual-use space infrastructure, a pattern also visible in funding rounds elsewhere in the sector. Investors will watch for contract wins that convert the manufacturing ramp into recurring service revenue, and for Open Cosmos to demonstrate that its 30-minute EO revisit target holds at constellation scale. The company employs close to 400 people across its European sites and says headcount will grow as the round is deployed.