ReOrbit sells two small GEO satellites to SLI

WASHINGTON — Finnish satellite manufacturer ReOrbit has signed a contract with asset-financing company SLI for two small geostationary orbit communications satellites.

ReOrbit announced March 19 that it reached an agreement to sell two small GEO satellites to SLI for a combined value of 150 million euros ($172 million). The first satellite will be delivered in 2029 and the other four months later.

The satellites each weigh less than 1,000 kilograms and will have Ka-band software-defined payloads, Sethu Saveda Suvanam, chief executive of ReOrbit, said in an interview. Each will be optimized for specific use cases with a 10-year lifetime.

“It’s optimized to deliver the ideal dollar per megabit,” he said of the satellites.

SLI is the aerospace subsidiary of Libra Group, a company that leases aviation, maritime and other assets. SLI ordered two satellites from another small GEO manufacturer, AscendArc, in December. It plans to lease satellites to customers who cannot afford or prefer not to buy their own satellites, applying a business model long used in markets such as commercial aviation.

“We see significant value in this satellite class and the operational advantages it brings to operators,” Praveen Vetrivel, chief executive of SLI, said in a statement. “The combination of ReOrbit’s technology and the low cost of entry via SLI’s finance platform can swiftly contribute to national security and long-term resilience.”

The leasing model is attractive to smaller governments interested in operating their own satellites but without the financing challenges of buying one upfront.

“A lot of nations today want to own their own satellites, but there is still a barrier for a lot of nations to jump into these complex systems,” Suvanam said, including cost. “That’s the initial barrier they wanted to break.”

That was a good fit for ReOrbit. “Our GEO satellites are very much tailored to sovereign customers, where the throughput we get out of these satellites falls within the sweet spot of many nations,” he said.

In addition to the contract with SLI, ReOrbit is seeing interest directly from governments in its satellites. He said the company has a pipeline of potential orders in the “many billions” of euros, some of which he expects to turn into contracts in the next few months.

ReOrbit is also finding interest in its satellites from commercial operators. “There is a very strong signal that small GEOs might come into the commercial segment as well,” he said. “But we’ve been largely focusing on sovereign customers, and the optimization of these platforms has been done so that this can address the broader sovereign market.”

Suvanam said being a European company gives it some advantages in addressing that demand over competitors that are primarily American.

“Most of these players are American, and given the current geopolitical situation and the way it’s evolving, the world is looking at what are the alternative options that are outside the U.S., and ReOrbit is one of the frontrunners,” he said.

ReOrbit raised 45 million euros in a Series A round in September 2025. The company is using that funding to scale up production, converting a 100-year-old car factory in Helsinki into a satellite production facility.

“What we promised our investors six months ago that we would achieve in two years we are almost achieving in a year,” he said. If that growth continues, he said the company may soon pursue a Series B round.