London-based space technology startup Foundational has raised £8.2 million in pre-seed funding to scale technology that can track satellites and space debris with millimetre-level precision.

The round, described as the largest pre-seed raise by a European space technology company to date, was backed by Inflection, BACKED, Final Frontier, Adjacent and Type One Ventures. The funding will help Foundational expand its ground-station network, increase production of its space-based hardware and develop its satellite positioning data platform.

Founded in 2025 by Hira Virdee and Dave Gooding, Foundational is tackling a problem that is becoming increasingly important as more satellites enter orbit.

Its technology automates Satellite Laser Ranging, a highly precise method of determining the position of objects in space. Ground stations fire laser pulses towards reflectors mounted on satellites, then measure the time it takes for the light to return.

That sounds highly specialised, but the commercial need is becoming easier to understand.

Low Earth Orbit is getting increasingly crowded. The European Space Agency recorded around 45,000 tracked objects in orbit at the end of 2025, alongside an estimated 1.5 million pieces of debris between 1cm and 10cm. Even relatively small pieces of debris can pose a serious risk to operational spacecraft.

Foundational wants to make the technology needed to manage that risk cheaper and easier to deploy.

The company's approach combines satellite-mounted retroreflectors, automated ground stations and its own software platform. Foundational says its stations can be around 30 times less expensive than legacy facilities, while operating as part of a network rather than as isolated installations.

The new capital will help the company expand that network and vertically integrate more of its hardware production. It is also developing commercial data products that could support satellite operators, governments and industries that rely on accurate positioning.

For investors, this is an interesting example of deep tech moving from scientific research into commercial infrastructure.

Foundational's technology builds on work originally developed at Lumi Space, which Virdee founded in 2018 with support from the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency. The company already has customers and partners across commercial satellite operators, government agencies, aerospace manufacturers and research organisations.

For founders, there is another lesson here. Some of the biggest startup opportunities are not necessarily consumer-facing products. They can sit underneath entire industries, solving infrastructure problems that become more urgent as markets grow.

With the space economy expanding, Foundational is betting that knowing exactly where everything is will become just as valuable as putting more things into orbit.

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Could space infrastructure like Foundational's become one of the next major deep-tech opportunities for European startups?