Europe’s satellite startups are pivoting hard from climate to defence – with NATO backing

A year or two ago, SatVu described itself as “The World’s Thermometer,” targeting “energy insights”, “building insights” and “water pollution.” In November 2024, the company announced on its website that it had secured €20m to expand “high-resolution thermal imaging for global climate action.”

Today, the messaging is more grey than green. SatVu now sells “high resolution thermal data from space for a safer and more sustainable Earth,” listing “national security” as its first target sector, alongside “economic monitoring” and “climate resilience.”

And now SatVu has added the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) to its cap table.

Trisha Saxena, senior associate at the NATO Innovation Fund, said SatVu’s tech could provide detailed data that would “help safeguard defence and economic activity across the Alliance.”

Anthony Baker, SatVu’s co-founder and CEO, said the investment would said the round would help it become the “partner of choice” for nations adapting to “an increasingly contested world.”

SavtVu’s shift is one with several precedents.

A change of tone

German thermal satellite startup Constellr began 2023 with a simple, climate-friendly tagline: “Global Water Monitoring for a growing planet.” By early 2025, it had broadened the pitch to “measuring temperature, water and carbon from space for better resource accountability.” Now, the language is sharper and more militarised: “decision-grade thermal intelligence,” with “MISSION 1: National Security” sitting prominently under its solutions tab.

Finnish unicorn ICEYE, best known for synthetic aperture radar imagery, has taken a similar path. In early 2023, its homepage positioned the company around “natural catastrophe monitoring solutions,” promising “situational awareness of floods in near real-time.” In 2026, the floods are still implied, but the audience has changed. ICEYE now markets “actionable intelligence for resilience, readiness & response,” offering “persistent, real-time Earth Observation for 24/7 tactical decision-making in any condition/weather.”

Following the money

The pivot is not necessarily about technology. Satellite data is inherently dual-use: the same thermal imagery that spots water stress in farmland can also spot activity at a military base.

In that sense, Europe’s satellite startups are unusually well placed to follow the money without dramatically changing what they do. And right now, the money is shifting. The last year has seen a precipitous drop in funding for climate tech, contrasted with a surge of investment in defence tech.

Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, rising defence budgets across Europe and renewed geopolitical uncertainty under Trump, it’s little surprise that climate-adjacent startups are aligning their messaging with the current zeitgeist.

But whether it’s a smart long-term move remains up for debate.

“Sometimes you go where the money is, and it is a way of surviving,” Martina Hegestig, business operations manager at Swedish incubator LEAD, previously told Impact Loop.

Since many startups are, by nature, “naturally optimistic,” Hegestig said it makes sense that some are trying to “reframe their value propositions” to improve funding prospects.

However, she warned the strategy could backfire over time.

“If you stray too far from your core purpose just to get funding,” she said, “you can lose credibility.”