Ever since Sputnik, the industry norm has been to design satellites as hardware projects, with the software and “brains” of the satellite added as the last manufacturing step. As a result of this approach, each satellite essentially runs bespoke software, making it challenging and risky to adapt a mission to new on-the-ground needs.
In contrast, ReOrbit started designing their satellites with a software-first approach. Beyond enabling truly flexible missions, their satellites could then become more resilient, modular, and aware — allowing ReOrbit to link their satellites together into a networked constellation. Data can then be delivered to the ground faster and more reliably by leveraging multiple pathways across the satellite network.
As Tuomas followed the team’s journey for the next months, their traction became tangible and the big vision suddenly looked more and more realistic. Inventure led their $7.4 million Seed round in 2023.
“Sethu’s mindset was so clearly different from every other space-tech founder I met — he really represented the Space 2.0 opportunity,” Tuomas explained. “That’s probably the main reason why we backed ReOrbit.”
One year later, that vision is taking shape. ReOrbit is building a satellite manufacturing facility in downtown Helsinki, in a historic building that once housed Finland’s first Ford factory.
“From day one, I’ve had this view that our manufacturing facility should be next to the city centre to showcase Finnish satellite technology to those who are based here and those who visit the country,” Sethu tells us. “Just like Ford democratized cars for the masses — we want to democratize satellites for nations. It resonates with that building very much.”
A new era of launch will enable a new era of satellites
Today’s space-tech startups were born in the era of miniaturization, but ReOrbit saw a different future opening up. “Until the mid-2000s, the average mass of a satellite was probably somewhere around 800–900 kilograms,” Sethu explains. “But around the mid-2000s, people started building these very small CubeSats, and the average launch potentially came close to 100 kilograms — which was a very significant reduction.”
That’s now set to change fast. With SpaceX’s Starship and other next-generation European launchers coming online, launch costs are set to drop. Tuomas brought up how the whole Inventure office was mesmerized a few weeks ago watching SpaceX’s Starship return landing. But from Sethu’s perspective, when Starship touched down, he saw the future of that one rocket handling today’s entire capacity in one or two launches.
That opens up ReOrbit’s opportunity to place more powerful software-enabled satellites that can be reconfigured in orbit for different missions. While much of the industry focuses on small satellites in low Earth orbit, ReOrbit is aiming higher and has positioned itself to build larger, more capable platforms that can serve customers’ needs for everything from high-throughput communications to defense applications.
“Once this launch bottleneck is broken, the average launch mass will go back to where it was in early 2000s,” says Sethu. “More mass means more power, more power means you can push more data, more data means more money. It’s very simple.”
Why move ReOrbit to Finland?
After 15 years in Sweden’s space industry, Sethu made another unconventional choice: moving ReOrbit to Finland. The decision came down to the regulatory environment.
“When I met Kimmo Kanto who was running the Business Finland space division, they were not just forward looking — they were ahead of the curve for innovation,” Sethu recalls. “He was talking about how ICEYE became a success story and how the Finnish space legislation was built around ICEYE’s success.”
Finland’s ecosystem offered unique advantages. “They had a very clear strategy on space sustainability,” Sethu notes. “And while Sweden and Norway were fighting for the launcher industry, Finland had a very clear policy that they shouldn’t go into the launch side. That was very refreshing because I’ve actually seen the downsides of investing heavily into launch and witnessing the return on investment there.
“There were so many small things… they had a very clear mindset of where they will and will not invest. And then within that framework, they will support every company to the core.”
The future of space: higher, bigger, more critical
Looking ahead, ReOrbit sees three major trends reshaping the industry:
- Higher orbits: “I predict the LEO market will saturate in the next 10 years,” says Sethu, pointing to Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper (Amazon), and others all sitting in LEO. “Although space is infinite, LEO is finite and already crowded; thus, the next wave of satellites will aim at going to GEO and MEO.”
- Bigger satellites: As launch costs drop, satellite size will increase. ReOrbit’s satellite mass is around 750–800 kilograms — about the weight of a grand piano. This is still smaller than the couple-metric-ton GEO satellites that Airbus, Lockheed Martin, and SES provide, but these take years to launch and are extremely expensive to get into orbit.
- A critical infrastructure for nations: The majority of space-based data has defense or intelligence applications. Having a sovereign satelliteprovides secure data exchange without relying on the infrastructure of other countries and owners of the network.
A “sales unicorn” in five years
The Nordic space ecosystem is already becoming mature. “ICEYE might soon become a space unicorn, if they’re not already,” notes Sethu. “You could already see at least three or four winners in Finland today — Kuva Space, ReOrbit, ICEYE are all success stories.”
ReOrbit’s ambitions match this potential. “Our target is to become a sales unicorn in five years,” Sethu says. “We want to close a billion euros in contracts.”
With an agreement for their first nine-figure satellite already in writing, the company is rapidly scaling up their team to support this future of the satellite industry.
Get involved with ReOrbit’s mission! They’re actively hiring across engineering and operations roles.
