Finnish satellite maker ReOrbit has closed what is believed to be a record €45 million Series A – the biggest round in Europe’s space-tech startup scene to date – as a declaration of intent: to build sovereign, software-driven satellite networks that can offer governments an alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink, but without the risk of being beholden to an overseas operator.
The Finnish company has been in operation since 2019 and also develops the spacecraft and operating software that allow sovereign nations to own, manage and secure their own constellations from end to end. The round was led by Springvest and supported by Nordic institutional investors Varma, Elo, Icebreaker. vc, Expansion VC, 10x Founders and Inventure.
Why All of This Crowding of Sovereign Space Suddenly?
Geopolitics has forced satellite autonomy high on the priority list. Recent disruptions in undersea cables, emerging cyber threats and growing orbital militatization have led capitals to reconsider dependence on foreign operators for crucial connectivity and imaging. Europe’s own drive for secure connectivity completed with programmes such as IRIS² and the EU’s Secure Connectivity initiative further highlights the move from best-effort commercial services to state-run infrastructure.
Consultants at Euroconsult have noted how government demand for resilient satcom and multi-orbit architectures has been turbocharged this decade, while the need for sovereign control and supply-chain transparency has gone from being nice-to-haves to board-level requirements.
Not Starlink For Everyone — Starlink For States
Starlink is building one of the world’s largest LEO constellations to provide high-speed internet services to places not wired or within reach of a terrestrial network. ReOrbit is targeting a different customer: countries that want their own secure satellites, keys and ground segment, but without building everything from the ground up. The pitch is “your satellites, your rules,” offered as a turnkey system with trusted European hardware and a software layer that puts control in a central place.
ReOrbit’s software-based approach is intended to be applicable across orbits. Its operational stack, which Kazdin describes as similar internally to a “satellite iOS,” can control both a geostationary asset (SiltaSat) and a LEO one (UkkoSat) to create a hybrid network that pairs high-throughput links with low-latency coverage. That flexibility is the point when it comes to defense, border security and disaster response.
Big Contract, Bigger Ambitions
The company says it has a full contract, worth hundreds of millions, with one nation and several memorandums of understanding with others. Management has set an aggressive target: become a “sales unicorn,” churning €1 billion in order bookings within four years by selling platform software licenses with spacecraft, payload integration and ground services.
While the business might have been able to “leverage cash flow” instead, executives decided to raise money now in order to get delivery moving more quickly and lock down supply during a period when launch slots, radios and secure components are all in high demand in the marketplace, a spokesman said.
Nordic Edge: Capital, Talent, Regulation
Finland has quietly blossomed into a spacefaring economy in Europe, thanks to a pragmatic set of regulations and a rapidly maturing supply base. The country’s experience of growing ICEYE as a leading global player in such synthetic aperture radar satellites showed it was possible to grow complex space hardware, and export it, from the Nordics. ReOrbit, whose management has strong ties to Sweden’s space industry, selected Helsinki for that very environment.
The financing mechanism itself is very Nordic: a mix of pension funds along with venture investors and a public offering platform, Springvest, which brings in qualified investors in late-early rounds while creating a larger domestic constituency for strategic tech.
Competing In A Packed Orbit
When it comes to capability, ReOrbit doesn’t have strict consumer network peers, but it does have companies with a similar strategy like Astranis — which builds smaller GEO satellites for specific regional capacity. The competitive landscape is also populated with Eutelsat OneWeb in LEO and Europe’s growing IRIS² construct. Vs. Starlink, the differentiator is not speed; it’s ownership and control. For ministries of defense and national telecom operators, that can mean more than raw throughput.
Starlink is still the benchmark in terms of scale — thousands of satellites launched — but the company’s vertically integrated, service-provider model is exactly what some governments are looking to avoid. ReOrbit is taking a flyer that a sovereign, multi-vendor model prevails when neutrality and trust is imposed.
What The New Capital Gets
ReOrbit plans to grow manufacturing in Finland, harden its software stack for classified and mission critical use and localize more of its supply chain within Europe. The company is also getting ready for an in-orbit demonstration with the European Space Agency, a critical technical validation of its multi-orbit control software and modular bus.
Anticipate investments in radios, encryption, interference mitigation and ground automation – sectors in which European suppliers can bring ITAR-light solutions and stronger security guarantees.
Metrics To Watch
The year ahead will reveal whether ReOrbit is able to turn MOUs into multi-year contracts and negotiate spectrum filings, export controls, and availability of launches. Nada goals include proving low-latency handovers between LEO and GEO, anti-jam capability, as well as cryptographic key management over sovereign ground stations.
If it succeeds, ReOrbit won’t replace Starlink; it will offer governments a credible European way to the same kind of resilience — on their own terms. In a world where connectivity is infrastructure and infrastructure is geopolitics — that may be the more durable business.
