ICEYE to produce 150 satellites a year in Greece after HIIF investment
Greece’s Hellenic Innovation and Infrastructure Fund (HIIF) has announced its first investment: the purchase of €35 million in preferred shares in the Finnish satellite company ICEYE. According to a 11 November 2026 briefing note from the Prime Minister’s office, the new facility will allow ICEYE to produce and export 150 satellites a year from Greece and to create 230 highly skilled jobs.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired the meeting at HIIF’s offices where the investment was formally presented. The official note says ICEYE already runs a subsystem production line in Neo Psychiko, in Athens, and plans a new Greek plant with end-to-end assembly, integration and testing (AIT) as well as subsystem manufacturing. Mitsotakis said the company had chosen to place its largest production base in Greece.
What the official figures cover — and what they do not
The government briefing states that, with the new installation, ICEYE will be able to manufacture in Greece and export 150 satellites a year, creating 230 highly skilled jobs and contributing to innovation, high-standard domestic production and “brain gain”. In his spoken remarks, recorded in Greek in the same official note, Mitsotakis used slightly broader wording — “more than 230” jobs and a plant that would produce “more than 150 satellites a year” (English rendering of the official Greek text):
ακριβώς αυτή η δυνατότητα δημιουργίας εξαιρετικά καλοπληρωμένων ποιοτικών θέσεων εργασίας, παραπάνω από 230 εν προκειμένω, για την κατασκευή μιας παραγωγικής μονάδας που θα παράγει παραπάνω από 150 δορυφόρους το χρόνο.
The official note does not name the new plant’s city, its construction cost or an opening date. The figures describe planned capacity tied to the new facility, not a line that is already running at that rate.
The existing Greek line and the wider funding round
ICEYE already takes part in Greece’s National Micro-Satellites Programme and has built the country’s first two SAR satellites. Mitsotakis recalled visiting the company’s facilities in August 2025 and said events had moved faster than he had expected. He also pointed to the practical value of SAR imagery for defence, civil protection and mapping of Greek territory.
The HIIF stake is part of a wider ICEYE funding round of €485 million. The official note says the round also includes sovereign investment funds from Qatar, France, Poland and Finland, as well as firms such as BlackRock and General Catalyst. Officials from the digital governance ministry, the National Development Fund and HIIF attended the meeting, together with ICEYE co-founder and chief executive Rafal Modrzewski and ICEYE Greece chief executive Vasilis Chaloulakos.
Because the government text does not fix a site or a start date for the new factory, the annual output and headcount should be read as the targets announced with the investment, not as current production.
Sources
- Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, 11 November 2026: Briefing note and remarks on HIIF’s first investment in ICEYE
