Earth observation funding tracker (83 deals)

Our funding tracker covering the Earth observation market

Below is the table listing all the deals. You may find our methodology at the end of this page.

And, if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the market and its current dynamics, get our report covering the Earth observation market.

Is Earth observation actually a well-funded market, or do a few giant rounds make it look bigger?

Earth observation has attracted serious investment, with at least $2.116 billion raised across 83 financings, but most startups are operating on a much smaller budget than that headline suggests.

We identified 65 companies that raised money between January 2024 and September 2026. Among the 82 financings with usable amounts, the average round was $25.8 million, while the median was only $6.65 million. A few enormous transactions explain most of that difference.

Just eight rounds strictly above $50 million absorbed approximately $1.292 billion, or 61% of all recorded capital. Without those eight deals, the remaining 75 financings add up to approximately $824 million.

That leaves a fairly active market for smaller rounds, alongside a handful of companies raising hundreds of millions to build and expand satellite infrastructure. The two groups face very different fundraising conditions.

How many Earth observation startups are actually getting funded?

We counted 65 funded Earth observation companies, and most raised money only once during the period we studied.

Fifty companies recorded a single financing, 12 raised twice, and three appeared three times. Those 15 repeat fundraisers account for 33 of the 83 financing announcements.

The funded businesses also vary considerably. ICEYE develops radar satellites, Pixxel builds hyperspectral imaging systems, and Tomorrow.io operates weather-sensing infrastructure. Companies such as LiveEO and AiDASH focus more on turning satellite observations into useful information for commercial customers.

Geospatial Analytics alone accounts for 32 funded companies. That gives Earth observation a reasonably broad startup base, even though the number of businesses attracting large amounts of capital remains much smaller.

Which Earth observation companies are getting most of the money?

Five Earth observation companies collected approximately 63% of all recorded funding: ICEYE, Tomorrow.io, Xoople, Pixxel and Yunyao Aerospace.

ICEYE leads by a huge margin, with at least $705.9 million raised across three financings. Tomorrow.io follows with $210 million, while Xoople secured $193.6 million during the period.

The gap becomes clearer further down the ranking. Only nine companies raised more than $50 million in cumulative funding, while 28 raised $5 million or less.

We also found that the 15 companies with multiple recorded financings attracted approximately $1.594 billion, representing 75.3% of the market's quantified capital. Once investors back a satellite operator through several stages of development, the subsequent funding requirements can dwarf those of newer companies.

Company	Financings	Capital raised
ICEYE	3	$705.9M+
Tomorrow.io	2	$210.0M
Xoople	3	$193.6M
Pixxel	2	$124.0M
Yunyao Aerospace	2	$100.0M+
Hydrosat	2	$70.0M
Unseenlabs	1	~$59.5M
LiveEO	2	$58.8M+
SatVu	2	~$52.7M
AiDASH	1	$50.0M

Is ICEYE basically carrying the Earth observation funding market?

ICEYE is the largest single contributor to Earth observation fundraising in our dataset, accounting for roughly one-third of the capital we recorded.

Its June 2026 Series F was particularly important. ICEYE announced €450 million, equivalent to approximately $520 million, in new primary capital, led by General Atlantic. The broader transaction exceeded €1 billion when secondary share sales were included, but those secondary proceeds should not be counted as fresh funding received by the company.

The investment came after ICEYE had already established a substantial position in government-oriented satellite intelligence. Its announcement identified seven European governments procuring sovereign satellite systems.

Still, removing ICEYE leaves approximately $1.41 billion in funding elsewhere in the market. Tomorrow.io raised $175 million in February 2026, Xoople announced a $130 million Series B in April, and Pixxel secured a $100 million Series C in September.

Those deals show that several companies can raise nine-figure rounds. ICEYE simply operates at an exceptional scale, even compared with other successful satellite businesses.

What does a typical Earth observation startup actually raise?

A typical disclosed Earth observation financing is around $6.65 million. In fact, 33 of the 82 rounds with usable amounts were smaller than $5 million, just over 40% of the total.

The company-level figures tell a similar story. Median recorded capital raised per company during the observation window was approximately $6.15 million, and 28 of the 65 businesses received no more than $5 million in quantified funding.

For a founder, these numbers offer a more realistic benchmark than the headline rounds going to established satellite operators. A company developing a new sensor, an agricultural monitoring product or geospatial software may initially be financed through relatively small institutional rounds.

Only five transactions reached $100 million or more, and those alone represented approximately 52% of market funding.

There is a wide gap between getting an Earth observation startup financed and raising enough money to operate a large proprietary constellation.

Which parts of Earth observation are investors putting the most money into?

Synthetic Aperture Radar receives the most Earth observation funding, while Geospatial Analytics attracts the most startups and financing deals.

SAR accounted for $820.5 million, or 38.8% of capital, across 15 transactions. Geospatial Analytics recorded 37 financings and $466.5 million, giving it 44.6% of deal activity but only 22.1% of the money.

Weather sensing has an even more unusual profile. Just two companies, Tomorrow.io and Yunyao Aerospace, attracted at least $310 million across four financings.

Thermal Infrared Imaging and Hyperspectral Imaging form another substantial part of the market. Hydrosat, constellr and SatVu illustrate demand for thermal observations, while Pixxel has become a major fundraiser in hyperspectral sensing.

The biggest difference between categories is often how much proprietary space infrastructure a company needs to build and operate.

Category	Deals	Companies	Capital	Median round
Synthetic Aperture Radar	15	10	$820.5M	$6.50M
Geospatial Analytics	37	32	$466.5M	$4.81M
Atmospheric & Weather Sensing	4	2	$310.0M+	$53.50M+
Thermal Infrared Imaging	10	6	$222.6M	$13.05M
Hyperspectral Imaging	9	7	$164.9M	$6.00M
RF Geolocation	4	4	$87.2M	$12.75M
Optical Imaging	4	4	$44.0M	$3.78M

Why are satellite radar companies raising so much money?

Satellite radar companies can attract enormous investments because building a reliable, large-scale observation network is expensive, especially when governments want their own intelligence capabilities.

ICEYE offers the clearest example. Its June 2026 funding was tied to expanding sovereign satellite intelligence systems. Those systems require radar-equipped spacecraft, manufacturing capacity, launches, ground infrastructure and the ability to deliver observations reliably to government customers.

That combination is very different from developing an analytics application around imagery provided by another satellite operator.

But SAR's apparent lead needs context. ICEYE alone accounts for approximately 86% of the category's recorded capital. Excluding it leaves around $114.6 million spread across nine other SAR companies.

So the enormous radar funding total mostly reflects ICEYE's commercial position. It doesn't mean every radar startup has an easier time raising money than companies using other observation technologies.

Why does Geospatial Analytics have so many startups but smaller rounds?

Geospatial Analytics attracts more funded companies than any other Earth observation category, partly because many businesses can develop useful products without owning satellites.

Companies can buy imagery or use existing data sources, then build tools for monitoring vegetation, infrastructure, land use or physical changes. That removes some of the financial burden associated with building and launching proprietary sensing systems.

AiDASH illustrates the commercial potential of this approach. The company announced a $50 million Series C in January 2024 to expand satellite-powered software for infrastructure resilience. Its products help utilities identify vegetation risks, improve inspections and manage climate-related threats.

Xoople represents a very different kind of business within the same category. Its $130 million Series B supports a proprietary Earth-data platform, with satellite sensing technology co-developed alongside L3Harris.

In April 2026, Xoople described a partnership that had already involved seven years of design and research. The company is pursuing something closer to a complete Earth-data infrastructure system than a conventional analytics application.

That's why the same category can contain a startup raising $2 million to develop satellite software and another raising $130 million to build proprietary infrastructure. The technology label alone tells us surprisingly little about capital requirements.

Why are weather satellite companies getting such huge checks?

Weather satellite financing is unusually large because the two companies represented in our dataset are building or expanding proprietary atmospheric observation networks.

Tomorrow.io accounts for $210 million of the category's funding. In February 2026, it announced a $175 million equity financing to expand DeepSky, its weather satellite constellation. Another $35 million followed in May through an extension involving Pitango and Harel Insurance.

The company had already deployed an initial satellite network before announcing these investments. Its objective was to improve atmospheric observations and deliver more frequent information to customers making weather-sensitive decisions.

Yunyao Aerospace, the other company in this category, raised more than $100 million during the period, based on the minimum values reported for its two financings.

Across these four transactions, the median recorded financing was at least $53.5 million, far above the wider market median.

That's an impressive number for such a narrow category. But with only two funded companies, one of which accounts for most of the money, it would be premature to describe weather sensing as a broad funding market.

Is thermal satellite imaging attracting serious investment too?

Thermal Infrared Imaging has become a meaningful part of Earth observation funding, with $222.6 million raised across ten financings involving six companies.

Hydrosat announced $60 million in January 2026, followed by a $10 million Series B extension in September. The company uses thermal satellite observations and analytics to help customers monitor water stress, agriculture and natural resources.

Constellr offers another example of how thermal applications are expanding. In February 2026, it announced a €37 million Series A to develop defense-grade thermal intelligence, including capabilities to observe activity around strategic infrastructure.

The category's financing is relatively well distributed. Its largest individual deal represented 27% of recorded thermal funding, compared with more than 60% for the largest individual transactions in SAR and Hyperspectral Imaging.

That makes thermal imaging one of the more interesting categories in the dataset. Several businesses have secured substantial rounds, serving different needs across agricultural water management, industrial monitoring and defense intelligence.

We can't tell from financing data alone which application will ultimately generate the strongest returns, though.

How old are Earth observation startups when investors start writing big checks?

Earth observation companies receiving large financings are generally fairly mature, with a median age of nine years among businesses raising rounds above $50 million.

Across all financing events, the median company age was approximately six years. At Seed, it was three years, rising to five years at Series A, seven at Series B and eleven at Series D or later.

ICEYE, founded in 2014, and Tomorrow.io, founded in 2015, had both spent years building their technologies and commercial operations before their largest recorded financings.

Pixxel's September 2026 Series C offers a more recent example. Its $100 million financing followed the deployment of six Firefly hyperspectral satellites and supported expansion into new sensing systems, manufacturing and Earth intelligence software.

There are exceptions, naturally. But the larger checks usually arrive after years of technical development, satellite deployment and efforts to establish commercial demand.

Is Earth observation funding mostly going to early-stage startups?

Most Earth observation financings happen at early stages, but later-stage companies receive the overwhelming majority of the money.

Seed and Series A together accounted for 46 of the 72 transactions with an identified funding stage. That represents 63.9% of stage-classified deals, but only $329.6 million in funding.

Series B alone attracted $456.3 million. Series D and later rounds received $928 million across just five transactions.

Round sizes increase dramatically along the way. The median Seed financing was $3.3 million, compared with $24 million at Series B and $175 million at Series D+.

Put another way, the five Series D+ deals raised almost three times as much capital as all 46 Seed and Series A deals combined.

Funding stage	Deals	Capital	Median round
Seed	33	$163.6M	$3.30M
Series A	13	$166.0M	$7.00M
Series B	15	$456.3M	$24.00M
Series C	5	$254.9M	$50.00M
Series D+	5	$928.0M	$175.00M
Growth Equity	1	$10.9M+	$10.90M+
Unknown	11	$135.8M+	~$6.81M

Why do so few Earth observation startups make it to Series C?

Series C funding is relatively scarce in Earth observation, with only five recorded financings compared with 15 at Series B and 33 at Seed.

The difference is particularly interesting because reaching Series B already implies a company has moved beyond its earliest financing stages. Yet relatively few Series C transactions appear during our observation window.

We suspect part of the difficulty comes from what investors expect at that point. A startup may successfully demonstrate its sensors or launch initial satellites, but financing a larger constellation requires confidence in customer demand, operational reliability and the economics of continued deployment.

Xoople's April 2026 Series B and Pixxel's September 2026 Series C show the scale of investment involved when companies move toward major infrastructure expansion.

There is an important distinction, however. We cannot calculate the probability of a startup reaching Series C from these figures, because the recorded financings involve companies founded in different years. Some businesses may also be using government contracts, debt or other financing structures instead of traditional venture rounds.

What we can say is that Series C transactions were rare during these 33 months. Only five appeared across a market containing 65 funded companies.

Are investors still funding new Earth observation startups, or mainly backing companies they already know?

Earth observation investors are putting almost all recorded capital into companies with previous financing histories.

Of the 83 deals, 68 were classified as follow-on financings. Together, they accounted for approximately $2.019 billion, or 95.4% of recorded capital.

The remaining 15 first financings raised $97 million in total, with a median transaction of $5 million.

The dominance of follow-on funding makes sense when we look at the largest transactions. ICEYE continued expanding its radar infrastructure, Tomorrow.io financed an additional generation of weather satellites, and Hydrosat secured further funding after establishing its thermal observation business.

New companies are still finding investors, but the typical first financing is tiny compared with the expansion rounds available to established satellite operators.

One qualification: this classification distinguishes companies with readily identifiable previous external funding from those without it. It doesn't mean every transaction labelled first financing was necessarily the company's first source of capital.

Is Earth observation funding growing steadily, or does the money arrive in sudden bursts?

Earth observation funding is highly irregular, with a few enormous deals creating monthly peaks that are far above normal activity.

Across the 33-month observation window, the median month contained two financings and approximately $21.62 million in recorded capital, including the month with no recorded qualifying deal.

June 2026 reached $531 million through just two deals, nearly all of it attributable to ICEYE's $520 million financing.

April 2026 looked quite different. Seven deals were announced, the highest monthly count in our observation window, but total funding was at least $225 million. Xoople's $130 million Series B accounted for much of that amount.

February 2026 also stood out, reaching $259 million with help from Tomorrow.io's $175 million financing.

A strong month in dollar terms can therefore reflect one established operator raising capital, rather than a sudden improvement in fundraising conditions across the sector.

We found no convincing recurring seasonal pattern. The timing of individual large financings explains much more of the variation.

Which countries are attracting the most Earth observation investment?

Europe leads Earth observation fundraising by recorded capital, but its advantage depends heavily on ICEYE.

European companies accounted for 31 deals and at least $1.234 billion. North America recorded $487.7 million, while Asia-Pacific attracted at least $376.2 million.

Finland alone contributed more than $705 million, entirely through ICEYE's three recorded transactions. Without that company, Europe's total falls to approximately $528.6 million, much closer to North America's figure.

The United States leads by deal count at the country level, with 18 financings. India follows with 11, while China and the United Kingdom recorded eight each.

Asia-Pacific is particularly interesting because it accounts for almost as many financings as Europe, but its median round is only $3.2 million, compared with Europe's $10 million.

Pixxel in India and Yunyao Aerospace in China show that large satellite financings certainly happen in Asia. The wider region, however, contains many smaller recorded transactions.

Region	Deals	Companies	Capital	Median round
Europe	31	23	$1,234.5M+	$10.0M
North America	19	18	$487.7M	$12.0M
Asia-Pacific	29	21	$376.2M+	$3.2M
Middle East	3	3	$14.4M	$5.0M
Latin America	1	1	$2.7M	$2.7M

Regional company counts reflect the headquarters recorded for each financing. Hydrosat appears in both North America and Europe across two transactions, so regional company counts sum to 66 rather than the 65 distinct companies in the overall dataset.

Which investors keep showing up in Earth observation funding rounds?

Earth observation has a surprisingly fragmented group of lead investors, with very few firms repeatedly leading deals in our records.

Among the 59 financings with disclosed lead investors, only Paspalis Capital and Molten Ventures appeared more than once under consistent reported names.

Paspalis Capital led or co-led two transactions worth a combined $5.5 million. Molten Ventures appeared in two thermal-imaging financings totaling $52.7 million. Those amounts represent the full rounds, rather than the investors' individual contributions.

The largest deals bring a different set of investors into view. General Atlantic led ICEYE's major 2026 financing, Stonecourt Capital and HarbourVest led Tomorrow.io's $175 million round, and Temasek and Seraphim co-led Pixxel's $100 million Series C.

We also found corporate involvement from businesses connected to aerospace, energy and industrial infrastructure. Lockheed Martin appeared in two SatVu financing records, while AiDASH attracted investors connected to major energy and utility groups.

There is no equivalent of ICEYE's dominance on the investor side. The market draws capital from many different specialist, generalist and strategic investors, although 24 deals had no disclosed lead and some relationships may therefore be missing.

Are defense and industrial companies investing seriously in Earth observation?

Defense and industrial companies are active Earth observation investors, particularly when satellite technology supports an established commercial or strategic need.

We identified 18 financings with at least one confirmed strategic investor, representing 21.7% of all deals. Six of those investments were in SAR, eight in Geospatial Analytics, three in Thermal Infrared Imaging and one in Optical Imaging.

AiDASH provides a useful example outside the defense sector. Its 2024 Series C attracted participation from investors associated with energy and utilities, including Duke Energy and Sabanci Climate Ventures. The company's products help infrastructure operators manage vegetation, weather-related risks and asset inspections.

Defense-related interest is also visible in ICEYE's sovereign intelligence business and constellr's move toward defense-grade thermal sensing, although corporate investment and government procurement should be distinguished.

One particularly revealing finding is that all 18 confirmed strategic-investor deals were classified as follow-on funding. None of the recorded first financings identified a strategic participant.

Despite that interest, corporate involvement does not automatically produce a much larger round. The median financing with confirmed strategic investment was $6.9 million, compared with approximately $6.1 million among deals without confirmed strategic participation.

Strategic capital appears selective. Companies with relevant industrial or defense applications can attract corporate investors, but their participation doesn't guarantee access to unusually large amounts of money.

What's still holding back Earth observation startups from raising bigger rounds?

The biggest visible weakness in Earth observation funding is the shortage of companies moving into repeated, large-scale financing.

Early-stage activity is reasonably broad, especially in geospatial software. Yet only five Series C deals and five Series D+ deals appear in the dataset.

Some parts of the market are particularly thin. Optical Imaging recorded four financings and none above $50 million. Weather sensing attracted substantial capital but involved just two companies. Hyperspectral Imaging had no confirmed strategic-investor participation in the structured records, despite Pixxel's substantial institutional funding.

The absence of large financings does not necessarily mean those businesses lack customers or have failed to develop their technology. Some may have raised capital before the observation window, secured government contracts or relied on financing instruments outside the scope of conventional equity fundraising.

Still, the contrast is striking. Dozens of companies can raise a few million dollars, while only a small number are visibly securing the capital needed to expand satellite infrastructure at scale.

For investors watching the next generation of Earth observation businesses, the most interesting question is which of today's smaller operators will become repeat fundraisers capable of attracting $50 million, $100 million or more.

What should we actually take away from the Earth observation funding data?

Earth observation has a genuine and reasonably broad startup ecosystem, but serious capital remains concentrated among a small group of companies with expensive infrastructure and established financing histories.

The typical Earth observation company raises much less than the headline total suggests. A $6.65 million median financing describes ordinary activity far better than the market's $25.8 million average.

Owning the observation infrastructure changes the fundraising equation. Radar satellites, weather constellations and specialized imaging systems can require substantial capital long after a company's first successful technical demonstration.

Early-stage activity is healthy enough to support dozens of companies, but later-stage transactions are much less common. Five Series C and five Series D+ financings across 33 months is a relatively thin pipeline for a market attracting more than $2 billion.

Established businesses also have a huge advantage in accessing capital. Follow-on financings represented 95.4% of recorded investment, and the companies raising the largest amounts had generally spent years developing their technologies.

Strategic investors play a selective role. Defense, utilities and industrial companies are involved in certain categories, but they do not account for most transactions or create an obvious funding advantage across the entire market.

Another giant financing for an established operator would increase the market total. A larger population of companies regularly reaching Series C and beyond would tell us much more about how deep the Earth observation funding market is actually becoming.