Hydrosat raises $60 million in Series B funding

SAN FRANCISCO – Hydrosat, a thermal imagery startup focused on water-resource management, has raised $60 million in Series B funding from equity investors and sovereign wealth funds.

With the influx of cash, announced Jan. 15., Hydrosat plans to launch additional thermal infrared satellites and expand its global footprint.

“We’re seeing remarkable momentum behind Hydrosat’s mission,” Hydrosat CEO and co-founder Pieter Fossel said in a statement. “This new funding underscores the company’s sustained growth and positions us to meet the increasing demand for intelligent solutions to some of society’s most complex challenges in national security and natural resources.”

Hartree Partners, Subutai Capital Partners and Space 4 Earth led Hydrosat’s Series B round. Participating investors included Truffle Capital, Luxembourg Future Fund, OTB Ventures, Blue Bear Capital, Statkraft Ventures, Cultivation Capital and Santa Barbara Venture Partners.

Hydrosat, founded in 2017, operates two thermal-infared satellites and provides customers with imagery and data products that reveal water stress in agriculture. In addition, government agencies apply Hydrosat observations to food security, public safety and national defense. The National Reconnaissance Office, for example, gains access to imagery from Hydrosat’s first two satellites through a contract announced in July.

Expansion Plans

The latest funding will enable Hydrosat to expand globally. The company based in Washington and Luxembourg, plans to enhance its presence in key regions such as Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, India and Latin America.

“Accelerating global expansion and export revenue is a major objective of Hydrosat’s Series B growth plan,” Fossel told SpaceNews by email. “With the Series B, we have hired sales representatives in India, Spain, the United Arabia Emirates, and Colombia. We also have plans to open additional international offices in the coming year.”

Meanwhile, Hydrosat will “strengthened our team in the U.S. to support our U.S. government business and invest significantly to expand our engineering offices in Carlsbad, California, and Luxembourg,” Fossel said.

Additional Satellites

Hydrosat, which currently collects daily imagery over more than 10 million square kilometers, also will expand its fleet.

“The new funding accelerates our constellation capacity and satellite capabilities,” Fossel said. “Hydrosat has started building the next block of its satellite constellation, which will offer our customers a step change in capacity and resolution to meet a wider range of high-value applications in natural resource management and national security.”

Hydrosat pairs space-based data with advanced artificial-intelligence and machine-learning models to enable governments, agribusinesses and research institutions to rapidly gain insights at regional and national scales, according to the news release.

“Hydrosat’s data is rapidly becoming essential infrastructure for managing water resources,” Hartree Partners head George Potts said in a statement. “By providing continuous, regional or field-level insights into irrigation patterns and best practices, the company gives governments, agribusinesses, and communities the clarity they need to build resilience.”

Truffle Capital partner Bozena Adamczyk added, “We’re entering a new era where space-based intelligence is no longer optional for insurers – it is becoming fundamental infrastructure.”

Hydrosat first two spacecraft, launched in 2024 and 2025, deliver daily, field-scale thermal imagery to help customers “anticipate and respond to emerging resource challenges before they escalate,” according to the news release. “Through global temperature insights, the company provides critical data to monitor water use, optimize irrigation, improve water productivity, and detect early indicators of vegetation stress or drought.”