The first investment from the new European fund is going towards technology that has been tried and tested in the defence and intelligence sectors. And it has come sooner than expected: on Wednesday 5 August, EQT announced the Scaleup Europe Fund’s first investment. The fund is co-managing Iceye’s Series F round, a deal comprising €450 million in new capital and a sale of existing shares, bringing the total value of the transaction to over €1 billion. The deal values the Finnish company at over €10 billion.
The amount invested by the Scaleup Europe Fund has not been disclosed. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and the usual conditions precedent. EQT nevertheless describes the investment as the fund’s first completed commitment.
The announcement brings the fund launched by the European Commission to life, designed to address the shortage of available capital when European technology companies reach an advanced stage of growth. The Commission had previously indicated that its first investments would take place in autumn 2026.
The fund is targeting a size of around five billion euros. One billion is to come from the European budget, with the remainder provided by institutional investors and a new fundraising round led by EQT. The fund is expected to invest sums in the region of 100 million euros or more, including follow-on investments, in order to trigger funding rounds worth several hundred million.
Iceye arrived… and left Luxembourg
Iceye almost literally embodies the remit entrusted to the Swedish fund manager. Founded in Finland in 2014 by Rafał Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila, the company operates a constellation of satellites equipped with synthetic aperture radar. Unlike optical instruments, these radars can observe the Earth’s surface both day and night and through clouds.
Technology is used to monitor natural disasters, infrastructure and changes to the Earth’s surface. It also provides imagery and intelligence to the armed forces. Iceye delivers complete, sovereign satellite systems comprising satellites, ground infrastructure, software and analysis tools.
According to the company, seven European governments have already ordered such systems. Iceye states, in particular, that it provided Poland with operational satellite capability less than twelve months after the contract was signed. Its industrial presence extends to Finland, Poland, Spain and Greece, with new entities in Germany and Portugal.
“Our first investment reflects exactly what the Scaleup Europe Fund was set up to support: ambitious European founders building globally competitive businesses in strategically important technologies,” explains Victor Englesson, a partner at EQT and co-head of the fund.
The Finnish company claims to have exceeded €250 million in turnover and €100 million in EBITDA in 2025, based on unaudited results. Its order book is reported to have exceeded €1.5 billion. It plans to double its production capacity, from the current 50 satellites per year to 100 from 2028 onwards.
“My co-founder, Pekka Laurila, and I met as students on an Erasmus exchange and received our first funding under Horizon 2020,” recalls Rafał Modrzewski, co-founder and CEO of Iceye. The company, which has benefited from European programmes, has thus become the first recipient of a fund designed to ensure that the continent’s technology leaders do not have to look elsewhere for the capital needed to scale up their operations.
This choice also sends a signal regarding Brussels’ definition of technological sovereignty. The first asset to receive funding is neither consumer software nor a consumer-facing company, but dual-use space infrastructure, serving both civilian and military purposes. The Scaleup Europe Fund is thus launching its portfolio at the intersection of investment, defence and European strategic autonomy.
