The Finnish company hopes to go public in Europe in the future, CEO and co-founder Rafał Modrzewski said.

Finnish space intelligence start-up Iceye is the first to tap backing from the $5bn EU scale-up fund meant to direct growth capital at high-potential companies in the bloc.

The EQT-backed Scaleup Europe Fund contributed €300m to Iceye’s €1bn June raise, the Fund’s co-head and EQT partner Victor Englesson told Bloomberg.

The Series F round was co-led by the Fund alongside General Atlantic with further backing from Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, Nokia and the Qatar Investment Authority, valuing the company at €10bn.

Iceye owns the world’s largest and most advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite constellation and provides continuous monitoring capabilities to its customers in defence, intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management.

The Finnish company hopes to go public in Europe in the future, CEO and co-founder Rafał Modrzewski told Bloomberg news.

“Europe has the talent, technology and ambition to build globally leading companies in strategically important industries,” Modrzewski said.

“Our own journey reflects that. My co-founder Pekka Laurila and I met as students on an Erasmus exchange, received our first funding through Horizon 2020, and we are grateful for the European Commission’s role in initiating the Scaleup Europe Fund.

“We are pleased to welcome EQT as a long-term partner through the fund, as we continue to expand our sovereign intelligence capabilities from Europe for customers across Europe and globally,”

The European Commission first announced the Scaleup Europe Fund back in October 2025, built on the ‘choose Europe to start and scale’ strategy launched earlier that year.

It’s the largest fund of its kind in Europe and is expected to help companies across a range of strategic sectors, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean energy, space technology, biotech and medical innovation. The Fund is eventually hoped to grow to €25bn.

Reports have already placed the Fund behind the Bavarian space-tech The Exploration Company in an upcoming $300m funding round. It is also reportedly expected to back the Paris-based Mistral AI in its upcoming raise.

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