ICEYE featured prominently in the European Commission President’s State of the Union address

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today delivered her annual State of the Union address in the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg. Unexpectedly, early in the speech, while discussing the need to develop the EU’s capital markets, she introduced ICEYE’s founders Rafał Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila – gentlemen who are also very familiar to many members of the SpacEconomy project.

“ICEYE was founded by two young Europeans: Rafał from Poland and Pekka from Finland. They first met through the Erasmus programme about 15 years ago. Together they founded a technology start-up, developed their idea, received EU Horizon funding, proved that their technology works, and grew with the help of private capital.”

“Today the company is one of the world’s leading space-technology firms, with offices in Finland, Poland, Spain and Greece,” von der Leyen continued. In her view, ICEYE’s story also shows how Europe can still innovate.

“You are a true European success story,” von der Leyen said, and Members of the European Parliament applauded. In the chamber and in the video feed, Rafał and Pekka looked slightly bewildered, but of course pleased.

Thanks from the EU’s highest level is surely warming, as is the visibility the company gained at the same time. In addition to MEPs, EU officials and invited guests, hundreds of journalists were present.

In her speech, von der Leyen said the EU must secure sufficient funding for promising European technology companies so that they can scale – as ICEYE has done. To that end the EU has established a new scale-up fund, and ICEYE was the fund’s first investment.