Why do we keep thinking so small, when we could have brands that lead the conversation?

Why do we keep thinking so small?  en the lesson Open Cosmos offers any Spanish startup

Open Cosmos, a Spanish-British startup specializing in satellite manufacturing and space infrastructure, has closed a 300 million euro funding round led by European investors, with participation from Lightrock, ETF Partners, the Institut Català de Finances, Entrepreneurs First, Santander Alternative Investments, and several international pension funds, among others.

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It is one of the largest rounds raised by a Spanish startup so far in 2026, confirming that space has become the star sector for Spanish tech investment this year.

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One of the most striking technical promises: reducing the time to access Earth observation data from 48 hours to just 30 minutes, by incorporating on-board processing with artificial intelligence and inter-satellite communication.

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The company has a strong regional footprint in Spain (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands). Its founder and CEO, Rafel Jordà, has framed the operation within a larger goal: for Europe to strengthen its technological and space sovereignty, with Spain playing a leading role.

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More than just a headline figure, a brand leading the conversation

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Spain no longer just has startups that "make technology"; it has startups that build critical infrastructure. Open Cosmos represents a different kind of ambition, one much harder to build: factories, production lines, satellites orbiting the Earth. That leap, from programming on a screen to manufacturing something that is launched into space, is a declaration of maturity for an entire ecosystem, not just the achievement of a single company.

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At a time when Europe relies heavily on foreign space and technological infrastructure—whether American or Chinese—having a company with a strong presence in Spain lead the conversation on secure communications and proprietary earth observation data is no small detail. It is the difference between depending on others' technology for strategic decisions and having the capacity to generate it at home.

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And here is the lesson for any Spanish startup or brand that still thinks small. For a long time, the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem has been measured by the yardstick of "competing for the local market" or, at most, "scaling to Europe." Open Cosmos has decided to compete directly in the global space infrastructure league, a field until recently reserved for state giants or a handful of American companies. That ambition—not settling for a "reasonable" market size for a Spanish company—is in itself a branding lesson: sometimes innovation isn't in the product, it's in deciding at what scale you dare to compete.

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