UK Invests €163 Million into Eutelsat

Eutelsat gained a capital injection deal worth €163.3 million through an investment by the UK government. The satellite company continues to secure funding in its efforts to become a European rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The fresh funding is in addition to a France-led round last month of €1.35 billion and will contribute to a plan to expand its low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation. Eutelsat noted it has now raised a total of €1.5 billion. The UK government is an existing investor and previously led a consortium that bailed out OneWeb in 2020, before it merged with Eutelsat.

“As our adversaries increasingly use space technologies to harm us, resilient satellite connectivity has become essential to our continent’s national security,” UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle said in a statement. Following the two transactions, the French state will hold a stake of 29.6%, while Bharti Space Limited and the UK government will hold 17.8% and 10.8%, respectively, in Eutelsat. The satellite company still faces a €2 billion bill to help develop the European Union space programme IRIS2.