Portuguese startup Spotlite has secured €3.5 million to expand its satellite-based infrastructure risk monitoring platform and strengthen its international operations, ECO/eRadar reports.
The funding round was co-led by Indico Capital Partners and Explorer Investments, with participation from EDP Ventures.
Spotlite already works with customers across Europe, the United States, and South America, including Portugal, Colombia, and Brazil.
According to CEO Ricardo Cabral, the new capital will help accelerate commercial activity in these regions and support entry into “new strategic markets, including North America and other geographies with large critical infrastructure networks.” This expansion is planned to unfold in phases over the next 12 to 18 months.
To sustain the expected growth, the company also plans to expand its team. Spotlite currently employs about 20 people, covering technical, commercial, and product functions.
Cabral says the startup expects to hire more than 15 additional professionals in the coming quarters, with a focus on product engineering, artificial intelligence, sales, and customer success. The goal is to bring in talent with international experience and sector expertise in energy, transport, and geospatial technologies.
Founded by Cabral and COO Martino Correia, Spotlite has developed a deeptech platform that combines satellite imagery with AI to monitor soil movement, structural deformation, and vegetation risks.
These insights allow operators in sectors such as transport and energy to detect early warning signs of possible incidents, reduce maintenance costs, and act preventively. Because the system works remotely, it removes the need for physical inspections or ground-based sensors.
The company’s investors underlined the potential impact of this technology.
Indico Capital Partners highlighted Spotlite’s ability to transform satellite data and AI into predictive management tools for critical infrastructure, describing the startup as aligned with the fund’s focus on space technology.
Explorer Investments noted that Spotlite is building one of the most sophisticated AI-powered monitoring platforms in the industry, with the capacity to redefine how infrastructure is monitored globally.
Spotlite’s growth strategy comes at a time when the Earth observation sector continues to expand. A 2024 market forecast published by Novaspace, a leading space consulting and market intelligence firm, estimates that the commercial Earth observation market will rise to more than $8 billion by 2033, reflecting increased demand for satellite-driven insights across industries.
Featured image: Spotlite co-founder and COO Martino Correia (left) with co-founder and CEO Ricardo Cabral. (Photo courtesy of Spotlite/via ECO)
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