SatVu closes £30M (€34M) thermal satellite round led by NATO Innovation Fund; HotSat constellation

SatVu, a London-based thermal intelligence company, has closed a £30 million funding round (approximately €34 million) led by the NATO Innovation Fund, bringing total equity funding to £60 million (€68 million). The round also included the British Business Bank, Space Frontiers Fund II, and Presto Tech Horizons, alongside existing investors Molten Ventures, Adara Ventures, Ridgeline Ventures, Lockheed Martin, and Seraphim Space Fund.

SatVu operates high-resolution thermal imaging satellites that detect heat signatures day and night at 3.5-meter resolution—roughly 28 times sharper than commercial alternatives like Landsat (which operates at ~100m resolution). Unlike optical satellites, thermal imaging sees through smoke and can detect activity inside buildings and infrastructure. The company is transitioning from single-satellite demonstration (HotSat-1, launched June 2023 but ended in December 2023) to a multi-satellite constellation.

HotSat-2 and HotSat-3 are scheduled for orbit in 2026, with HotSat-4, HotSat-5, and long-lead elements of HotSat-6 already under contract. A constellation increases revisit frequency to 10–20 times per day, enabling persistent monitoring of activity and operational readiness. As of January 2026, SatVu had secured £6 million in pre-orders ahead of launches.

Beyond defence and government applications, SatVu's thermal data applies to industrial and climate monitoring: blast furnaces, cement plants, data centres, oil and gas flaring, and solar farm output. For infrastructure teams tracking data centre capacity and thermal load, SatVu provides an independent, space-based measurement layer that correlates heat signature with actual operational state—a signal particularly relevant as AI compute clusters scale and facility thermal footprints grow unpredictable.