Creotech plans $118 million capital raise, investment in new satellite factory

WARSAW, Poland — Polish space technology company Creotech Instruments has announced plans for a $118 million fundraise that will allow the company to open a new satellite production facility in Poland by 2029 as part of a new long term development strategy. Creotech Instruments hopes to quadruple its manufacturing capacities to around 40 satellites annually by then.

Grzegorz Brona, CEO of Creotech Instruments, told SpaceNews that last year the company reached 146 million złoty ($40.4 million) in revenue from space sector sales and achieved net profitability for the first time. With this upcoming investment in satellite production, the company is planning to tackle its order backlog. Brona added that the company plans to invest “tens of millions of dollars” and select a facility site by the end of the year.

“At our facility in Piaseczno, close to Warsaw, where we make 10 microsatellites per year, our capacities are fully booked. We have a backlog of orders for the space sector of around 600 million złoty,” Brona said. Those orders include two projects for which Creotech Instruments is the prime contractor: the Mikroglob optoelectronic Earth observation microsatellite program for the Polish military, and the CAMILA program, commissioned by Poland’s government.

The 52 million euro ($61 million) CAMILA project is an effort to develop a national satellite constellation for Poland.

The company’s portfolio also includes Kestrel nanosatellites, Eagle microsatellites and Seagull minisatellites. 

Brona said that the company plans to shift from a focus on microsatellites toward minisatellites as part of the expansion plans

The Seagull platform of 150 kilograms with a [synthetic aperture radar] payload will be launched into orbit in 2028 as part of the CAMILA program. A year later, Creotech aims to roll out SWAN, a new platform of larger satellites with weights of up to 200 to 300 kilograms and in 2032, the business plans to launch EMU, a platform that will support missions of up to 500 kilograms, according to the CEO.

Last April, Creotech Instruments joined a group of companies involved in an initiative to develop a hybrid satellite constellation in the Three Seas region, covering the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas. The joint initiative by space companies from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia aims to significantly enhance Earth observation capabilities through sharing satellite resources and developing interoperable ground infrastructure.