Finnish satellite imagery firm ICEYE continues to expand its business in the U.S., announcing Wednesday that it signed $50 million in contracts last year for its services while hiring multiple new executives, including a former Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) leader.
ICEYE co-founder and CEO Rafal Modrzewski told the media last year’s total sales growth was “an unexpected result” given the COVID-19 pandemic, and represented contract growth of nearly 10 times what the company signed in 2019.
"It was definitely above expectations, and we see this trend continuing," Modrzewski said.
The company’s business is based upon combining a special type of imagery, called synthetic aperture radar (or SAR), with a form factor the size of a suitcase – reducing the cost of launching multiple satellites to create a network that can image places on Earth multiple times a day.
ICEYE is not alone in pursuing the SAR imagery market. San Francisco-based Capella Space recently deployed its own SAR satellites in orbit to capture of a piece of the Earth intelligence market, which is estimated to be worth about $60 billion.
"We see the fastest growth, in terms of percentage ... in the revenue coming from the commercial sector," Modrzewski said.
The company is now working to scale its revenue further, Modrzewski said "from tens of millions of booked contracts to hundreds of millions."
That’s necessitated the hiring of more executives at ICEYE to "be able to handle that hyper growth phase," he said, with the company’s global headcount now reaching 280 employees.
