French SSA company Look Up raises 50 million euros

WASHINGTON — Look Up, a French space situational awareness company, has raised nearly 50 million euros ($57.6 million) to continue development of a radar network to track space objects.

The company, previously known as Look Up Space, said June 11 it raised the funding through a combination of equity investments, loans and a European Union grant.

The Series A round was led by ETF Partners, a London-based fund that contributed 24 million euros, with participation from several existing and new investors, including the European Union’s EIC Fund. The company received 15 million euros from the EU as non-dilutive funding and also raised an unspecified amount of debt from several banking institutions.

The company, founded in 2022 by former French military and space agency officials, is developing a global network of radars to track space objects. The company has one operational radar in France and the funding will allow it to deploy two additional radars in French Polynesia.

“This 50 million euros in funding will enable Look Up to accelerate the development of its radar network, expand its services, and grow internationally in order to make a decisive contribution to the security of commercial and government space asset,” Michel Friedling, co-founder and chief executive of Look Up, said in a statement to SpaceNews. He is a retired French Air and Space Forces general who was the first head of French Space Command.

“As a former French space commander, I know exactly what governments and MoDs [ministries of defense] need to achieve space domain awareness,” he said. “I founded Look Up to provide them with the capabilities I dreamed of in my previous role, particularly for intelligent and automated space C2.”

In addition to tracking objects, Look Up is working on a space operations service supported by an EU program, Acceleration Towards LEO Automatic Space Safety or ATLAS2. That will be tied to its space surveillance network.

“This integrated vision allows us to meet the rising demand for coordinated space traffic management from both public and private operators, ensuring the long-term sustainability of space activities,” said Juan Carlos Dolado, co-founder and chief technology officer of Look Up Space, and former head of space surveillance at CNES, in a statement.

Look Up currently has more than 60 employees and the funding will allow it to grow to 100 by the end of the year, as well as support international expansion.