The funding round was led by Act Venture Capital and Greencode Ventures, with continued backing from existing investor Atlantic Bridge, and will support the expansion of Ubotica’s Live Maritime Intelligence (LMI) platform.
The technology aims to transform how governments, defence organisations and maritime agencies monitor vast ocean areas by enabling satellites to analyse data in orbit and respond to emerging threats without waiting for imagery to be transmitted back to Earth for processing.
Ubotica has already demonstrated the capability of its Orbital AI technology through multiple space missions, conducting hundreds of thousands of artificial intelligence operations in orbit, deploying more than 30 Earth observation AI models across satellite missions, and achieving a 100 per cent mission success rate.
Working alongside organisations, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency, the company has delivered several space industry firsts, including the first spacecraft capable of autonomously identifying a target and adjusting its position to capture additional imagery.
The latest investment will support the commercial deployment of LMI, a service designed to help governments detect and respond to maritime security risks across large areas such as exclusive economic zones, which can often exceed the size of a nation’s land territory.
The platform is being developed amid increasing concern over threats to critical maritime infrastructure, including undersea communications cables, offshore energy facilities, pipelines and strategic shipping routes.
It is also designed to address challenges such as illegal shipping activity, shadow fleets, vessels operating without identification, sanctions evasion and potential sabotage.
Unlike traditional Earth observation systems, which typically collect imagery and send it back to ground stations for analysis, Ubotica’s Orbital AI processes information directly onboard satellites.
This allows spacecraft to identify patterns, prioritise important events and redirect sensing resources towards areas of interest without waiting for human analysts on Earth.
Ubotica’s LMI platform continuously analyses maritime activity to identify areas of increased risk and help operators focus surveillance resources where they are needed most.
By combining onboard artificial intelligence with autonomous ground-to-orbit tasking, the system can dynamically coordinate available satellites and sensors to investigate emerging activity and deliver intelligence faster.
The company said this approach reduces response times, improves satellite efficiency and shifts Earth observation from a passive imaging capability into an active intelligence-gathering network.
Ubotica chief executive Fintan Buckley said the company’s experience developing Orbital AI had positioned it to address some of the world’s most challenging maritime security requirements.
“Ubotica has spent years pioneering Orbital AI, and we have applied that knowledge to one of the hardest security challenges on Earth: protecting vast maritime zones and critical offshore infrastructure,” Buckley said.
He said the platform could identify emerging risks, task satellites and sensors automatically, and deliver intelligence to decision makers within minutes.
Act Venture Capital partner Andrew O’Neill said the technology represented a major shift in how satellite data could be used.
“Ubotica has been running inference in orbit for years and transforms static Earth observation into live intelligence,” O’Neill said.
He said the ability to analyse satellite data immediately was becoming increasingly important as nations sought faster warning of threats to critical infrastructure.
Greencode Ventures partner Terhi Vapola said the technology had significant potential as governments looked to strengthen resilience and security.
She said edge AI capabilities could allow satellite networks to detect threats and anomalies across large ocean areas, creating both strategic security benefits and commercial opportunities.
Ubotica’s investment comes as interest grows in orbital computing, artificial intelligence infrastructure and next-generation space-based intelligence systems.
By moving processing power closer to where data is collected, Orbital AI is expected to reduce reliance on large-scale ground processing networks and enable faster decision making across defence, security and commercial applications.
The company’s LMI platform represents a broader shift towards satellites becoming autonomous intelligence platforms rather than simply remote sensing systems, providing governments and operators with faster, more responsive awareness of activity on Earth.
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