Space Park Leicester programme graduate lands £3.3m to seed growth
A graduate of Space Park Leicester’s prestigious ESA Business Centre (ESA-BIC) programme has secured £3.3 million in seed funding.
Messium is on a mission to transform global agriculture by giving farmers insights into crop health, soil conditions and boosting crop yields through cutting-edge hyperspectral satellite technology and AI analytics.
This week it has closed a £3.3 million seed funding round co-led by UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UK12S), through their Space Fund backed by the UK Space Agency, and managed by Future Planet Capital and Expansion – a top European SpaceTech fund.
Messium Co-Founder and CTO Vishal Soomaney Vijaykumar said: “Picking the right investors is about more than just capital. It’s about building a board of fundamentally good people who care deeply about the business and the problem being solved. People who have complete conviction that the Messium team are the best people to solve it and who have the experience and motivation to support founders in asking and answering the hard questions.
“I’m proud to have this amazing group of people joining us to support the next stage of Messium’s journey, setting us on a path to continued success.”
Messium addresses one of agriculture’s critical challenges – enabling farmers to optimise nitrogen usage, the most vital nutrient for crop growth.
Current methods for managing nitrogen are costly, inaccurate, and impractical at scale, often leaving farmers struggling to balance productivity with profitability.
Messium’s solution leverages hyperspectral satellites — which detect wavelengths invisible to traditional imaging — and advanced crop growth models to deliver weekly, cost-effective nitrogen assessments and fertiliser recommendations.
The seed funding round also included existing investors SuperSeed and new investors Grains Research and Development Corporation, GrainInnovate, Laconia, Mudcake, Clear Current Capital, Moonstone Venture Capital and Maza Ventures.
Vinay Patel, Head of Commercial and Innovation at Space Park Leicester, said: “We were so excited to celebrate Messium’s graduation from the ESA-BIC programme earlier this year and are thrilled to see it achieve this latest remarkable success.
“Messium’s incredible achievements highlight the transformative potential of space-enabled technologies in addressing global challenges and show what’s possible when bold ideas meet world-class support.”
ESA-BIC UK is now open for applications and there is space for start-up founders to join the programme at Space Park Leicester which is the University of Leicester’s £100 million science and innovation hub.
It offers funding, business support and access to an incredible network for anyone looking to take their space tech idea to the next level.
Applications for ESA-BIC must be submitted by Sunday, October 12. To find out more about the programme visit https://esa-bic.org.uk.
To learn more about Messium, visit https://www.messium.co.uk.
Discover more about Space Park Leicester’s cutting-edge partnerships, pioneering missions, resident community, state-of-the-art facilities, specialist training programmes and innovation ecosystem at www.space-park.co.uk. Explore how your organisation can collaborate with us here. To learn more about the University of Leicester, visit le.ac.uk.
Main image: The Messium team