Foresight supports Optera funding to scale UK space domain awareness hub

Foresight Group (“Foresight”), a leading regional private equity and real assets investment manager, has announced a new investment in Optera. The round was led by the UK Innovation Science and Seed Fund with participation from Foresight and other investors.

Optera, a neuromorphic sensing company delivering next-generation space domain awareness (SDA), has raised £3m to establish and scale its UK headquarters and engineering team. 

Optera’s event-based sensors and AI analytics work like the human eye - capturing only changes in a scene - so operators can track and characterise fast-moving objects using far less data and power than traditional frame-based cameras. 

This enables persistent, lower-cost operations on the ground and in orbit in challenging lighting conditions. The company has multiple years of on-orbit heritage with payloads operating today and is now expanding its UK delivery team across civil and space programmes. 

The decision to scale in the UK is driven by the nation’s thriving space and dual-use tech and investment ecosystem, strong customer demand for SDA, access to world-class talent and universities, and the availability of mission-driven capital aligned to national security and growth.

Jonathon Wolfe, CEO, Optera commented on the announcement, “Our sensors ‘see’ like the human eye - reacting to change rather than capturing empty frames - so operators can track fast objects with higher confidence and at lower cost. This breakthrough gives our customers the edge they need in an increasingly complex space environment.

“The UK is where we want to grow: it’s an outstanding environment for space innovation, with world-class customers, partners, universities and talent and we want to hear from them as we grow. We are grateful to have the backing of UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), Blackfinch Ventures, Foresight Group, the British Business Bank and Empirical Ventures - investors who share our vision for scaling dual-use capabilities that matter for both national security and global markets.

“This funding enables us to expand our UK engineering team, deliver key SDA and dual-use sensing programmes, and accelerate on-orbit processing so more intelligence can be generated at the edge. With this support, Optera is ready to build a sovereign capability here in the UK that strengthens national security and defence and creates high-value jobs in the process.” 

Rubina Singh, Senior Investment Manager at Foresight Group shared: "Optera is translating cutting-edge neuromorphic sensing into real operational advantage for both national security and the wider global space markets. Its approach delivers a genuine step-change - dramatically lowering data and power requirements while enhancing resilience and opening the door to wider deployment across civil, commercial and mission-critical environments.

Their relocation underscores the UK’s position as a place where frontier technology companies can scale. We’re excited to support the team building sovereign, world-leading sensing capability combining deep technical differentiation with growing commercial momentum."