Foundational, a London-based space technology startup, has raised £8.2 million in pre-seed funding as it emerges from stealth. The round included participation from Inflection, BACKED, Final Frontier, Adjacent and Type One Ventures. No single lead investor was disclosed.
Founded in 2025 by CEO Hira Virdee and CTO Dave Gooding, Foundational is developing infrastructure to automate and scale Satellite Laser Ranging, or SLR, a technique used to determine the position of satellites and orbital objects with millimetre-level precision. The company builds on laser-ranging technology developed through Lumi Space, which Virdee founded in 2018.
Foundational combines three parts of the SLR system into an integrated offering: retroreflectors installed on spacecraft, automated ground stations that perform laser measurements, and Origin, its software platform for processing and delivering positioning data. The company is seeking to make SLR available as scalable commercial infrastructure rather than primarily as specialised scientific facilities.
The funding will be used to expand Foundational’s ground-station network, bring more space-hardware manufacturing in-house, increase production of its retroreflectors and further develop the Origin data platform.
Foundational says its network is already operational and can track objects at distances of up to 2,000 kilometres with millimetre-level ranging precision. The company has also said that 16 of its retroreflectors are already in orbit, with around 60 more awaiting launch. Its customers and partners include commercial satellite operators, the European Space Agency, UK government bodies, aerospace manufacturers and research institutions.
The company described the £8.2 million financing as the largest pre-seed round raised by a European space technology company to date.
