SENNA

Satellite Monitoring Startup Spotlite Raises €3.5 Million to Expand Global Footprint

Lisbon-based infrastructure intelligence firm Spotlite has secured €3.5 million in seed funding to accelerate its global expansion, underscoring growing investor appetite for technologies that can enhance the resilience of critical assets.

The round was co-led by Índico Capital Partners and Explorer Investments, two prominent venture capital firms in Portugal's burgeoning spacetech ecosystem. Founded in 2017 by Ricardo Cabral and Martino Correia, Spotlite offers a platform that converts satellite data into actionable insights to help infrastructure owners and operators reduce operational costs through predictive maintenance and remote auditing.

"We are helping infrastructure operators shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, empowering companies with AI-powered data-driven decisions," said Spotlite CEO Ricardo Cabral. The company's proprietary technology combines data from multiple satellite sources to continuously monitor a wide range of risks across thousands of kilometers, without the need for physical inspections or on-site sensors.

Initially focused on the transportation sector, Spotlite's platform has since been extended to cover mining sites, energy infrastructure, and buildings. The platform delivers fully automated alerts, enabling infrastructure managers to anticipate issues such as landslides, ground subsidence, vegetation encroachment, flooding, and fire hazards well in advance.

According to industry sources, the market for satellite-based infrastructure monitoring solutions is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, driven by increasing climate-related threats and aging asset bases globally. Research firm MarketsandMarkets projects the sector to expand at a CAGR of over 15% through 2026, reaching a value of $6.9 billion.

"Spotlite is positioning itself as an emerging reference in infrastructure intelligence, offering tools that can make the built environment safer, more efficient, and more resilient," said Índico Capital Partners' investment director João Carvalho. The latest funding will allow the company to expand into new geographic markets and further enhance its platform's capabilities, the firm said.

The seed round comes at a time of heightened investor interest in spacetech startups, fueled by the declining costs of satellite launches and advancements in data analytics. In 2022, European spacetech companies raised a record €3.2 billion in venture capital, more than double the previous year's total, according to data from Space Capital.