Pomegra
Oxford-based satellite manufacturer Open Cosmos closed a €300 million ($348 million) Series C on September 14, raising Europe's newest space unicorn at a valuation exceeding $1 billion.
- Open Cosmos co-led by Lightrock and ETF Partners; NSSIF, two pension funds, and Convex Group also participated.
- Company manufactures one satellite per day across four European factories and employs ~400 people.
- Proceeds accelerate OpenConstellation, ConnectedCosmos, and DataCosmos platforms targeting defense and enterprise clients.
Lead
Open Cosmos, the Oxford-headquartered satellite manufacturer and space intelligence operator, closed a €300 million ($348 million) Series C on September 14, 2026, crossing the $1 billion valuation threshold and becoming the latest European entrant to unicorn status. The round was co-led by Lightrock and ETF Partners, with additional participation from the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Convex Group, Phoenix Court, Spanish public development bank Institut Català de Finances, Entrepreneurs First, two undisclosed international pension funds, and a venture debt tranche from Claret Capital Partners.
What Does Open Cosmos Actually Build?
The company is not a single-product satellite firm. Founded in 2015 and now operating across the UK, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, Open Cosmos packages four integrated offerings: OpenOrbit designs, assembles, and operates spacecraft; OpenConstellation allows governments and organizations to share satellite infrastructure rather than own it outright; ConnectedCosmos delivers sovereign broadband and IoT links between orbit and ground; and DataCosmos converts sensor and imagery streams into real-time operational intelligence.
Manufacturing throughput is the operational claim that sets the company apart in European new-space circles. Open Cosmos says it can produce one satellite per day from its current four factories - a cadence that, if sustained, would put it in a category shared by only a handful of global manufacturers. The company launched OpenConstellation 1.0 in 2026, a next-generation Earth observation infrastructure built to deliver actionable intelligence within 30 minutes of tasking.
Why Is European Defense Money in This Round?
The NSSIF's presence in a commercial satellite round is not accidental. European governments accelerated sovereign space investment after recognizing strategic dependence on non-European infrastructure, a calculation sharpened by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and shifting U.S. policy on defense-aligned data sharing. Open Cosmos explicitly targets "international enterprise and defense clients," and the NSSIF - a UK government fund backing technologies with national security relevance - signals that customers with classified requirements are likely already in the pipeline.
Pension fund participation alongside a state-security vehicle is an unusual combination in a Series C. It reflects two distinct investment theses: pension managers see satellite infrastructure as a long-duration, revenue-recurring asset; defense-adjacent funds see it as strategic positioning. The two are not always compatible, but they converge at a company offering both a commercial manufacturing story and a sovereign connectivity narrative.
What Does the Valuation Imply About the Last Round?
At $1 billion-plus on roughly $390 million raised to date, the implied step-up between this round and prior financing is material. Open Cosmos has not disclosed its Series B valuation publicly, which makes a clean comparison impossible. What the $1 billion figure does signal is that investors are pricing in the platform model - recurring intelligence and connectivity revenue - not just satellite assembly margins. Hardware-only manufacturers in the new-space sector have struggled to sustain comparable multiples as launch costs commoditize; the DataCosmos and ConnectedCosmos services are where the growth premium lives in this valuation.
European Space Funding Context
Open Cosmos closes this round in a market where European institutional capital has moved toward the sector with unusual speed. ESA's commercial programs, EU defense spending increases under NATO commitments, and the collapse of several U.S.-based satellite constellations that left enterprise customers exposed have all redirected deal flow toward domestically controlled alternatives. ETF Partners, which focuses on environmental and sustainability technology, and Lightrock, which backs growth-stage companies with systemic impact mandates, are not traditional defense investors - their presence points to the broader ESG and geopolitical-resilience framing that has helped Open Cosmos access a wider LP base than a pure-defense pitch would allow.
Outlook
Open Cosmos enters the post-Series C period with manufacturing scale, a four-platform product architecture, and a government-adjacent customer base that provides both near-term contract visibility and longer-term procurement leverage. The company's capacity to translate production throughput into recurring data and connectivity revenue will determine whether the $1 billion valuation proves conservative or stretched. Expansion of OpenConstellation into new sovereign markets, and the rate at which DataCosmos closes enterprise contracts, are the two metrics that will define the next financing conversation.
