European nations face a strategic vulnerability: their access to satellite imagery for defence, infrastructure and crisis response depends largely on non-European operators. Marble Imaging, a startup founded in August 2023 in Bremen, Germany, aims to change that by building the continent's first commercial constellation of very-high-resolution satellites. The company has now secured €6 million in new funding led by Cherry Ventures, building on an earlier €5.3 million seed round from High-Tech Gründerfonds.
The startup's mission centres on a concrete gap in European capabilities. While very-high-resolution imagery serves as essential input for both security and commercial intelligence work, Europe and its allies remain dependent on external providers. Recent geopolitical events—coverage gaps over Ukraine and the Strait of Hormuz—have exposed the risks of this arrangement, leaving decision-makers without timely data when it matters most.
Marble's technical approach combines two complementary layers. On the infrastructure side, the company is assembling a satellite constellation designed to deliver hourly Earth observation data. Marble Sat-1, the first spacecraft, has completed pre-flight testing and is scheduled for launch in early 2027. This satellite will capture imagery at up to 0.7 m spatial resolution across visible, near-infrared and short-wave infrared spectra. The company targets a constellation of 30 satellites by 2030.
Alongside the orbital infrastructure, Marble is developing an AI-powered analytics platform that transforms raw satellite data into actionable intelligence. The company already provides advanced analysis services including object detection for situational awareness, terrain analysis, trafficability assessment, coastal asset monitoring and land cover classification. As the constellation grows, the integration of these components will create what the company describes as a uniquely well-trained AI system tailored for defence, civil security and critical infrastructure users.
Robert Hook, co-founder and CEO, framed the opportunity in strategic terms: "To make better decisions, data access must be immediate and actionable. Europe and many of its global partners lack this capability today. We at Marble are determined to close this gap, and Cherry's trust helps us achieve this faster."
Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, echoed the strategic importance of the venture: "Europe needs its own eyes in space, and Marble Imaging is building them. They are using AI to turn pixels into answers, exactly what government and defence customers need. This team has spent their careers in the industry and knows what it takes to build something very big. The product Marble will deliver doesn't exist in Europe yet, but we're convinced it has to."
The new capital will accelerate constellation deployment and support applications spanning defence, climate security, crisis and disaster response, energy transitions, and infrastructure monitoring.
Source: Tech.eu
