Open Cosmos Hits $1 Billion Valuation With $348 Million Series C

UK-based satellite manufacturer and operator Open Cosmos closed a €300 million ($348 million) Series C financing round on September 14, 2026, pushing its valuation past $1 billion and making it Europe’s newest space unicorn. The capital will fund expansion of both commercial spacecraft manufacturing and proprietary satellite constellation operations for international enterprise and defense clients.

The funding follows continuous growth in building and operating dedicated smallsat platforms for civil, defense, and commercial customers. Open Cosmos previously launched OpenConstellation, its shared Earth observation infrastructure, which aggregates sensor payloads across multiple European operators to broaden access to high-frequency remote sensing data.

The round was co-led by Lightrock and ETF Partners, with Claret Capital Partners providing a venture debt tranche. With the new capital, Open Cosmos is accelerating the rollout of ConnectedCosmos, a planned European sovereign Ka-band broadband constellation in Low Earth Orbit. ConnectedCosmos uses 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.

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.

The company describes its approach as a dual-use platform that combines Earth observation and communications infrastructure, addressing 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.

Next steps center on deploying initial test satellites for the ConnectedCosmos Ka-band network, alongside the scaling of satellite production and the expansion of ground operational infrastructure funded by the round.