- Hydrosat raised USD 60M Series B to expand its thermal satellite intelligence capabilities globally
- Polish OTB Ventures supports Hydrosat as CEE’s leading CEE deep-tech investor
- Hydrosat combines thermal imagery and AI to improve resource management decisions
- The company’s future plans include global expansion, satellite scaling, and enhanced Water & Crop Management solutions
This January, the well-known Polish fund OTB Ventures joined the USD 60M Series B round of the Luxembourgish-American deep-tech company Hydrosat. The new funding accelerates the expansion of the scale-up’s thermal satellite intelligence platform, supporting growing demand across agriculture, government, defense, and natural resource management markets. The funding round was co-led by Hartree Partners, Subutai Capital Partners, and Space 4 Earth, with new investment from Truffle Capital and continued participation from long-standing backers including Blue Bear Capital, Cultivation Capital, Luxembourg Future Fund, Santa Barbara Venture Partners, and Statkraft Ventures.
Turning Thermal Data into Earth Intelligence
Hydrosat is building a new layer of Earth intelligence by combining thermal infrared satellite imagery with AI. The company’s technology helps organizations monitor water use, detect crop stress, improve irrigation decisions, and anticipate resource challenges before they escalate.
At the core of Hydrosat’s technology is thermal infrared data, which provides insights beyond traditional satellite imagery. While visible imagery can show what is happening on the Earth’s surface, thermal intelligence helps reveal why it is happening—providing signals about water stress, temperature changes, and environmental conditions.
The Hydrosat team is convinced that many of the biggest challenges that the world faces today, including food security, water scarcity, and climate resilience, are ultimately challenges of information. Better information, in turn, allows organizations to make better decisions. Our goal is not simply to collect more data, but to turn complex observations into actionable intelligence that helps customers manage critical resources more effectively.”
From Space Technology to Commercial Applications
Pieter Fossel, Co-Foudner and CEO at Hydrosat
Founded in 2017 by Pieter Fossel, Royce Dalby, and the late Jakob Van Zyl, Hydrosat has grown from a company focused on proving the value of thermal satellite data into a commercial provider serving customers across agriculture, government, and defense sectors. The company currently operates two thermal infrared satellites and has expanded its ability to collect high-frequency imagery at global scale.
One of the company’s key differentiators is its focus on analytics. Rather than providing satellite imagery alone, Hydrosat develops tools that translate complex Earth observation data into practical insights for decision-makers.
The CEE Deep-Tech Connection
This approach was one of the factors that attracted early investors, including the Polish deep-tech investor OTB Ventures.
Adam Niewinski, Co-Founder and General Partner at OTB Ventures
‘Hydrosat produces extremely powerful data for monitoring climate risks and for our food and water supply. There is nothing else like it on the market. One of the things that most excited us about Hydrosat is their robust analytics capability, even before a single spacecraft is in orbit,’ OTB Ventures’ co-founder and general partner Adam Niewinski comments.
His firm has supported Hydrosat through multiple funding rounds and continues to back the company’s expansion. Seeing how deep-tech companies require a long-term perspective, building advanced technology and turning it into a reliable commercial product indeed requires strong partnerships, patience, and a continuous focus on solving real customer problems.
Resilience Through Space-Based Intelligence
George Potts, Head of Technology Investment at Hartree Partners
‘Hydrosat’s data is rapidly becoming essential infrastructure for managing water resources. By providing continuous, regional or field level, insights into irrigation patterns and best practices the company gives governments, agribusinesses, and communities the clarity they need to build resilience,’ Hartree Partners’ head of technology investment George Potts points out.
For Europe, the company represents the growing importance of commercial space technologies addressing challenges on Earth. Hydrosat’s development reflects the broader evolution of the European deep-tech ecosystem, where investors and founders are increasingly focused on technologies combining space, artificial intelligence, climate resilience, and industrial applications.
Expanding Across Space, Agriculture, Insurance, and Climate Markets
‘We’re entering a new era where space-based intelligence is no longer optional for insurers – it is becoming fundamental infrastructure. Hydrosat exemplifies the convergence of SpaceTech, DefenseTech, AgriTech, and InsurTech, with its thermal constellation delivering the high-frequency data needed to accurately price agricultural and water risk and enable parametric insurance. That’s why Hydrosat has invited Truffle Capital to this round for its added value to accelerate adoption across insurance and financial services,’ Truffle Capital’s partner Bozena Adamczyk adds.
Bozena Adamczyk, Partner at Truffle Capital
The USD 50M Series B funding supports Hydrosat’s global expansion, including deeper presence in regions such as Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, India, and Latin America. The company will also continue scaling its thermal satellite fleet and expanding its Water & Crop Management solutions.
A Global Vision For Resource Intelligence
‘We’re seeing remarkable momentum behind Hydrosat’s mission. This new funding underscores the company’s sustained growth and positions us to meet the increasing demand for intelligent solutions to some of society’s most complex challenges in national security and natural resources,’ Mr Fossel concludes.
Looking ahead, Hydrosat aims to become a trusted source of intelligence for organizations managing critical resources worldwide. For the Hydrosat team, success is measured by the impact that its satellites’ capabilities create—the decisions improved, resources managed more efficiently, and customers who rely on the obtained insights.
As climate change and resource security challenges intensify, technologies that transform Earth observation data into actionable intelligence are becoming increasingly critical for governments, industries, and communities worldwide. Hydrosat’s progress demonstrates the growing potential of deep-tech solutions emerging from the broader European ecosystem, where space innovation is increasingly connected with real-world challenges on the ground. Continued backing from OTB Ventures highlights the role CEE investors can play in supporting ambitious, globally scalable companies addressing some of the most pressing challenges of the future.
Kostiantyn is a freelance writer from Crimea but based in Lviv. He loves writing about IT and high tech because those topics are always upbeat and he’s an inherent optimist!
