The UK government will invest €163m into Eutelsat, a France-based rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink, as Europe looks to bolster its technological sovereignty in the face of rising geopolitical tensions.
The French company, which merged with UK satellite startup OneWeb in 2022, provides low orbit satellites which can be used for military, government and business communication. It’s considered the only serious European competitor to Starlink, but has been outpaced by its US rival in recent years.
The investment from the UK government is part of a larger €1.5bn fundraise Eutelsat is raising from investors including the French government and India multinational Bharti Space, which was announced last month.
“As our adversaries increasingly use space technologies to harm us, resilient satellite connectivity has become essential to our continent’s national security,” said UK tech secretary Peter Kyle.
“This investment reflects our commitment to support the development of these critical technologies and maintain an important stake in the global satellite communications sector.”
The UK government already had a 10.9% stake in Eutelsat, as a result of its previous shareholdings in OneWeb, which it maintains as part of the fresh investment in the French satellite group.
Eutelsat, which IPO’d on the Euronext Paris in 2005, has seen its shares soar since the start of the year, as Europe’s reliance on overseas critical infrastructure has been called into question.
In February there were reports that the US was considering switching off Ukraine’s access to Starlink, which has provided vital communication infrastructure to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.
Starlink’s constellation of satellites currently dwarfs Eutelsat’s. The US company currently has around 7,900 satellites in orbit, compared to its European rival’s 700.
The funding will cover Eutelsat’s immediate needs, reported Bloomberg, but the company will have to raise another €4bn by 2032.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/musks-starlink-rival-eutelsat-raises-163m-uk-government/
