Ubotica Raises $11M to Expand Real-Time Maritime Surveillance

Irish space technology company Ubotica Technologies has secured $11 million in new funding to accelerate the deployment of its Orbital AI-powered maritime intelligence platform, a breakthrough capability designed to deliver real-time threat detection and decision-making directly from space.

The funding round was led by Act Venture Capital and Greencode Ventures, with participation from existing investor Atlantic Bridge.

The investment marks a significant milestone for Ubotica, one of the world's leading pioneers in Orbital AI, the ability to process and analyze data directly onboard satellites rather than transmitting raw imagery back to Earth for later analysis.

Turning Satellites Into Real-Time Security Assets

As geopolitical tensions intensify and threats to critical maritime infrastructure continue to rise, governments are increasingly seeking faster and more intelligent ways to monitor vast ocean territories.

Ubotica's newly launched Live Maritime Intelligence (LMI) platform aims to meet that demand.

The system enables governments, coast guards, and maritime agencies to identify emerging threats in real time, including:

• Shadow fleet activity

• Dark vessels operating without transponders

• Sanctions evasion

• Suspicious behavior around undersea cables and pipelines

• Potential acts of sabotage targeting offshore infrastructure and shipping routes

The platform continuously assesses maritime risk across expansive ocean regions and dynamically directs satellite assets toward areas of interest, dramatically reducing response times and improving situational awareness.

A New Era of Intelligence at the Orbital Edge

Traditional Earth observation satellites capture imagery and send it back to Earth for processing, often creating delays that can limit operational effectiveness.

Ubotica's Orbital AI technology fundamentally changes that model.

By processing information directly onboard satellites, the company significantly shortens the time between observation and actionable intelligence while also making satellite constellations more efficient and autonomous.

The company has already demonstrated extensive operational success in orbit, including:

• Hundreds of thousands of AI inferences performed in space

• More than 30 Earth observation AI models deployed across multiple satellite missions

• A 100% mission success rate

• Several industry firsts developed alongside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency

Among its most notable achievements was the world's first spacecraft capable of autonomously identifying a target and repositioning itself to capture imagery without human intervention.

Addressing a Growing Security Challenge

The funding arrives at a time when nations are under increasing pressure to secure critical infrastructure, particularly across maritime domains that often exceed the size of their land territories.

Undersea communication cables, offshore energy platforms, strategic shipping lanes, and pipeline networks have become increasingly vulnerable to hybrid threats and geopolitical competition.

Ubotica's Live Maritime Intelligence platform seeks to provide operators with earlier warning and faster decision-making by continuously identifying areas of elevated risk and autonomously tasking available sensing assets.

Scaling Orbital AI for Global Markets

"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," said Fintan Buckley, CEO of Ubotica Technologies.

"Live Maritime Intelligence predicts where risk is emerging, tasks the right satellites and sensors, and delivers decision-grade intelligence in minutes, giving security teams the speed and efficiency they need to act. This investment allows us to bring LMI to market at scale."

Investors believe the company's technology could redefine how satellite intelligence is delivered.

"Ubotica has been running inference in orbit for years and transforms static Earth Observation into live intelligence," said Andrew O'Neill of Act Venture Capital. "Nations cannot afford to wait hours for imagery while a vessel goes dark over critical infrastructure. Live Maritime Intelligence turns Earth observation from a camera into a real-time sentinel."

Terhi Vapola of Greencode Ventures added that resilience and infrastructure protection will be defining priorities for Europe in the coming years.

"Ubotica's edge AI technology enables satellite constellations to detect threats and anomalies early across vast ocean areas, creating both a strategic security capability and a compelling commercial opportunity."

The Bigger Picture

The latest investment highlights a growing shift within the space industry toward in-orbit computing and autonomous satellite intelligence, where data processing moves closer to where information is collected.

As governments and commercial operators seek faster, more responsive intelligence capabilities, Ubotica's success positions the company at the forefront of a rapidly emerging market where satellites are evolving from passive imaging systems into autonomous, decision-making platforms capable of delivering real-time operational intelligence from space.