Update: Shares in ICEYE backers Seraphim Space (SSIT) and Molten Ventures (GROW) have jumped 15% and 12% respectively after the Finnish satellite constellation operator quadrupled its valuation to over €10bn ($12bn, £8.6bn) in a €1bn fund raising.
ICEYE’s series F funding round, which is expected to close in the next quarter, underlined how fast the business is growing coming just seven months after the company was valued at €2.4bn in a €150m series E funding round.
As with the fund raise in December, the latest primary money gathering was led by US investment firm General Atlantic and drew in €450m ($520m). It was accompanied by a secondary placing that lifted total proceeds to over €1bn. In addition to a strategic investment by Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia, new investors to ICEYE included Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and TCV.
Seraphim, the £700m FTSE 250 listed space technology fund that held 47.1% of its assets in ICEYE at 31 March, said its biggest holding would double with a 102%, or £202m increase in fair value. It said that would add around 73p, or 41.6%, to net asset value (NAV) per share that stood at 177.6p at the end of the first quarter. This will be reflected in its 30 June valuation when it publishes annual results in October.
Its shares initially rallied 43.7p to 230.7p before paring the gain to 29p at 216p. That leaves them below their peak of 273.5p on 22 May.
Molten, a £986m technology venture fund, said after selling another £22m, its stake in ICEYE would increase by £238m to £317m, an uplift of 236% to the 31 March 2026 holding value.
The uplift in ICEYE is not reflected in the 31 March NAV published today but said it would add about 117p to NAV per share which would rise from 760p to 877p. Its shares gained 67.7p to 605.7p as the company’s annual results also confirmed a 13% gross return before fees.
“Achieving a valuation of over €10bn is a strong endorsement of ICEYE’s leadership position in space-based intelligence and reflects the growing strategic importance of sovereign intelligence, resilience and real-time situational awareness capabilities,” said James Bruegger, CIO of Seraphim Space Manager.
“For SSIT shareholders, this financing round demonstrates the company’s ability to provide access to category-leading SpaceTech companies at the forefront of some of the most important technological and geopolitical trends shaping the global economy,” he added.
Ben Wilkinson, chief executive of Molten Ventures, said: “When we first backed ICEYE in 2018, we saw a team with the ambition and capability to redefine European deep tech. Today’s announcement, at an over €10bn valuation, is a powerful validation of that conviction and places ICEYE firmly among Europe’s most consequential technology companies.”
Rafal Modrzewski, ICEYE co-founder and chief executive, said: “The quality of investors who have chosen to back us at this scale reflects a shared belief. Sovereign intelligence from space is entering a new era and the window to build it is now.”
Sascha Günther, co-head of EMEA Technology at General Atlantic, said: “ICEYE has fundamentally redefined Earth observation. The company pioneered the shift to next-generation, agile satellite fleets that deliver greater strategic capability with far greater cost efficiency”.
Last year ICEYE crossed over €250m in revenue and over €100m in operating profits with over €1.5bn in contracts. It said: “Production is now doubling, from 50 satellites per year today to a target of 100 annually by 2028 and beyond, supported by a matching launch cadence.”
Our view
James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said: “Seraphim Space shares have been selling off over the past couple of weeks and we didn’t really understand why. This ICEYE news underscores the message that we and the manager have been trying to convey for the past few months – that the NAV was likely understated as contract wins and new funding rounds drive valuations higher. However, even we weren’t expecting a valuation uplift of such magnitude. It is important to remember that SSIT is much more than a play on ICEYE. There are many exciting businesses in the portfolio, it is just that ICEYE is a little further on than them. Molten Ventures is another beneficiary of this revaluation, even after selling a chunk of ICEYE stock in December.”
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