Open Cosmos raises 300 million euros against contract intake of about 106 million dollars a year

Contract intake has run at roughly $106 million a year ^[1], and Open Cosmos says it has been profitable for five consecutive years ^[3].

The company runs four businesses. OpenOrbit builds satellites to customer order, OpenConstellation lets governments and companies share one network instead of each building their own, ConnectedCosmos sells secure broadband and IoT links between space and the ground, and DataCosmos turns raw imagery into information, such as spotting a temperature spike in a forest and alerting firefighters even where ground internet is out ^[9]. Three of the four are named as destinations for the money: the shared network, the connectivity business and the data business ^[8]. OpenOrbit is not among them.

The manufacturing claim is a rate. There are four factories, in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Greece, and the company says it can build a satellite a day ^[10]. On a five-day week that is about 250 satellites a year, and flat out 365 ^[4], the same order as the 300 to 400 units a year Spire Global is building toward in the UK, the US and Germany ^[14]. Open Cosmos reports a 100% mission success rate and says its focus on profitability differs from ICEYE's strategy ^[15]. It went from securing spectrum licences to launching its first satellites in two and a half months ^[20].

"Space infrastructure is becoming as critical as energy, digital networks and transport," said founder and chief executive Rafel Jorda Siquier ^[11]. UK space minister Baroness Lloyd called the funding "a major vote of confidence ... in Britain's growing space sector" and linked it to the government's new space strategy ^[16].

The competitive set is not short of money either. Loft Orbital has raised about $326 million and is valued at close to $1 billion ^[13], and Sifted reports it has struck a billion-dollar deal with the UAE's Marlan Space to build an AI-powered constellation, with the French model maker Mistral supplying the AI ^[19]. Sifted describes the appetite behind rounds like this one as investor backing for Europe's sovereign space capabilities ^[17].

Two readings. If mid-sized states would rather rent orbital capacity than build it, OpenConstellation is the cheaper route for them, and five profitable years make Open Cosmos a credible counterparty for a long procurement. If sovereignty in practice means owning the hardware, the sharing model loses to national programmes and to ICEYE's approach ^[15], and the €300 million has bought plant for demand that goes elsewhere. I lean to the first, because sharing an existing network is the one product on that list that does not require the buyer to fund a satellite programme ^[9]. If intake stays near the $106 million average while the factories and the payroll grow, the profitability record breaks before the thesis does. The company did not disclose a valuation.