On Sept. 14, 2026, UK-based satellite manufacturer and operator Open Cosmos closed a €300 million ($348 million) Series C financing round, establishing the company as Europe’s newest space unicorn with a valuation exceeding $1 billion.
Europe’s space funding accelerates
The funding round was co-led by Lightrock and ETF Partners, with Claret Capital Partners providing a venture debt tranche. The capital injection will fund the expansion of both commercial spacecraft manufacturing and proprietary satellite constellation operations for international enterprise and defense clients.
Program Context and Spectrum Asset Integration
The funding follows the company’s continuous growth in building and operating dedicated smallsat platforms for civil, defense, and commercial customers. Open Cosmos previously launched its shared Earth observation infrastructure, the OpenConstellation, which aggregates sensor payloads across multiple European operators to democratize access to high-frequency remote sensing data.
With the new capital, Open Cosmos is accelerating the rollout of ConnectedCosmos, a planned European sovereign Ka-band broadband constellation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). ConnectedCosmos utilizes high-priority ITU spectrum filings originally assigned to Rivada Space Networks, enabling the company to expand beyond Earth observation and deliver secure, high-throughput telecommunications services.
Market Expansion Rationale
Developing a dual-use platform combining Earth observation and communications infrastructure addresses growing demand among European governments and commercial entities for sovereign, secure orbital assets. By coupling the OpenConstellation imagery framework with the ConnectedCosmos Ka-band communications network, Open Cosmos aims to offer integrated end-to-end mission capabilities, from raw data capture to real-time space-to-ground downlink routing.
Operational Outlook
Proceeds from the Series C financing will be directed toward scaling satellite production output, expanding ground operational infrastructure, and deploying initial test satellites for the ConnectedCosmos Ka-band network.
