2026-09-15 — Lightrock leads the round for the Oxford-headquartered operator, which runs four European factories and sells the imagery layer most precision-ag…
Open Cosmos announced a €300 million raise on 14 September 2026. Lightrock led the round. ETF Partners, Entrepreneurs First, Institut Català de Finances, A&G Global Investors, Trill Impact, Phoenix Court, the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Convex Group, Santander Alternative Investments, Sankara, Ireon Ventures, Sustainable Forward Capital, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Iberis Capital, Shilling VC, Amena Ventures and Claret Capital Partners also took part, alongside two international pension funds the company did not name. Claret Capital Partners provided a venture debt tranche. The company did not disclose a valuation; trade outlet SatNews reported the round as a Series C valuing Open Cosmos above $1 billion.
The company was founded in 2015 by Rafel Jordà Siquier, who remains chief executive. It is headquartered in Oxford and employs around 400 people across the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Greece. It operates four European factories with the capacity to build one satellite per day, and states that every satellite it has launched to date has reached orbit successfully.
The business runs in four parts. OpenOrbit designs, builds and operates satellites for customers. OpenConstellation is shared satellite infrastructure that members buy into rather than fund alone. ConnectedCosmos covers broadband and IoT communications. DataCosmos processes imagery and sensor data into what the company describes as near-real-time monitoring and decision-making.
Proceeds go to expanding satellite mass-manufacturing capacity, accelerating the deployment of ConnectedCosmos, OpenConstellation and DataCosmos, and scaling the engineering, manufacturing and software teams. “Space infrastructure is becoming as critical as energy, digital networks and transport,” said Jordà Siquier. The presence of the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund and Institut Català de Finances on the cap table puts sovereign money next to the growth capital, which is now a common shape for European space rounds.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: almost no ag company owns the observation layer its product sits on, and this round changes the supply side of that dependency rather than the pixels. Three practical points. First, a better-capitalised European operator is a second source next to the incumbent providers most crop-monitoring products quietly single-source from, and procurement teams at co-ops and food companies are starting to ask that question in writing. Second, the metric that decides whether satellite data is useful in agronomy is revisit rate and latency, not resolution — a field seen weekly at ten metres beats a field seen monthly at one. Third, a shared-constellation model is the buy-rather-than-build option: capacity you subscribe to, the same logic that stopped ag startups buying their own compute. The caution is the old one. Imagery has never been a business in agriculture on its own; the margin has always been in the agronomic decision layered on top, and cheaper pixels shrink a cost line without creating a moat.
Open Cosmos raises €300m to scale European satellite manufacturing and Earth-observation data
Lightrock leads the round for the Oxford-headquartered operator, which runs four European factories and sells the imagery layer most precision-ag products are built on.
Open Cosmos announced a €300 million raise on 14 September 2026. Lightrock led the round. ETF Partners, Entrepreneurs First, Institut Català de Finances, A&G Global Investors, Trill Impact, Phoenix Court, the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Convex Group, Santander Alternative Investments, Sankara, Ireon Ventures, Sustainable Forward Capital, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Iberis Capital, Shilling VC, Amena Ventures and Claret Capital Partners also took part, alongside two international pension funds the company did not name. Claret Capital Partners provided a venture debt tranche. The company did not disclose a valuation; trade outlet SatNews reported the round as a Series C valuing Open Cosmos above $1 billion.
The company was founded in 2015 by Rafel Jordà Siquier, who remains chief executive. It is headquartered in Oxford and employs around 400 people across the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Greece. It operates four European factories with the capacity to build one satellite per day, and states that every satellite it has launched to date has reached orbit successfully.
The business runs in four parts. OpenOrbit designs, builds and operates satellites for customers. OpenConstellation is shared satellite infrastructure that members buy into rather than fund alone. ConnectedCosmos covers broadband and IoT communications. DataCosmos processes imagery and sensor data into what the company describes as near-real-time monitoring and decision-making.
Proceeds go to expanding satellite mass-manufacturing capacity, accelerating the deployment of ConnectedCosmos, OpenConstellation and DataCosmos, and scaling the engineering, manufacturing and software teams. “Space infrastructure is becoming as critical as energy, digital networks and transport,” said Jordà Siquier. The presence of the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund and Institut Català de Finances on the cap table puts sovereign money next to the growth capital, which is now a common shape for European space rounds.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: almost no ag company owns the observation layer its product sits on, and this round changes the supply side of that dependency rather than the pixels. Three practical points. First, a better-capitalised European operator is a second source next to the incumbent providers most crop-monitoring products quietly single-source from, and procurement teams at co-ops and food companies are starting to ask that question in writing. Second, the metric that decides whether satellite data is useful in agronomy is revisit rate and latency, not resolution — a field seen weekly at ten metres beats a field seen monthly at one. Third, a shared-constellation model is the buy-rather-than-build option: capacity you subscribe to, the same logic that stopped ag startups buying their own compute. The caution is the old one. Imagery has never been a business in agriculture on its own; the margin has always been in the agronomic decision layered on top, and cheaper pixels shrink a cost line without creating a moat.
