London-Based Foundational Emerges From Stealth With €9.6 Million to Track Satellites and Debris

London-based Foundational has emerged from stealth with €9.6 million (£8.2 million) in pre-seed funding to develop a global infrastructure network for highly precise satellite positioning and space situational awareness. The round includes Inflection, BACKED, Final Frontier, Adjacent and Type One Ventures.

Founded in 2025 by Hira Virdee and Dave Gooding, Foundational is developing technology to collect, process and deliver highly precise positioning data for satellites. Its applications span navigation and positioning, Earth observation and surveying, maritime and aviation, as well as space traffic control.

The company is focused on automating and scaling Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), a technique that determines the position of objects in orbit by firing laser pulses from ground stations at satellite-mounted retroreflectors and measuring the return time. The method can deliver millimetre-level ranging precision, providing detailed information about the location and movement of satellites and other objects.

Foundational combines three components into a vertically integrated system: satellite-mounted retroreflectors, automated ground-based laser stations and a software platform that processes and delivers the resulting data. The company says its system is designed to be fully automated, weatherproof and scalable as a network, while potentially costing up to 30 times less than legacy laser-ranging stations.

The technology builds on laser-ranging systems originally developed at Lumi Space, which Virdee founded in 2018 with support from the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency. Gooding previously served as COO and CTO at Lumi Space. The new company is taking that technical foundation toward a broader commercial infrastructure model.

As satellite constellations expand and the amount of debris in low Earth orbit increases, precise tracking data is becoming increasingly important for collision avoidance and space traffic management. Foundational's data can also support resilient navigation and Earth observation, while potentially serving satellite operators, insurers, governments and other organisations that depend on accurate orbital information.

The new funding will be used to expand Foundational's ground-station network, vertically integrate manufacturing of its space-based hardware, increase production of its laser retroreflectors and further develop its data platform. The company ultimately plans to establish a resilient global network providing continuously available positioning data for satellite operators, governments and other space-sector customers.