Through the development and design of nano-satellite constellations, start-up Prométhée Earth Intelligence aims to give emerging countries spatial sovereignty in their Earth observation missions. Having just raised €4.72 million (out of €15 million in financing by the end of the year), the start-up is going to build its first device.

Of the 30 billion euros deployed over 5 years as part of the investment plan “France 2030” presented at the end of 2021 by the government, 1.5 billion euros are dedicated to space. And of this total, half will be allocated to NewSpace, a “fabulous decision” according to Olivier Piepsz.

“Our innovation is newspace”. Thanks to digitalization, the miniaturization of technologies and the “drastic drop in the price per kilo put into orbit”, the space industry has been opened up to small players. While not quite the size of Elon Musk’s American Space X, Prométhée Earth Intelligence and its co-founder Olivier Piepsz are among those who can imagine the space of tomorrow.

Democratizing Earth observation

The origins of Prométhée Earth Intelligence lie in the desire of several countries around the world to have their own sovereignty and autonomy in Earth observation activities. To be independent in monitoring illegal fishing, its borders, etc. This autonomy, the young startup aims to provide them: “we are developing a complete system that will allow to have an image every hour, and even less. But beyond satellite manufacturing, the idea is to have business verticals for …