Two European Startups Just Cleared a Big Hurdle for 5G From Space

Jan de Vries · 2026-11-09

Europe's push to run its own satellite communications just got a little more real. Swiss SpaceTech startup SWISSto12 and French startup UNIVITY have cleared a Critical Design Review (CDR) for two active antenna systems built to deliver 5G connectivity from space. That might sound like engineering housekeeping, but it's actually a meaningful checkpoint. It means the designs are locked and the companies can move from drawing boards to building actual hardware. ### What the Two Antennas Actually Do The collaboration centers on two active phased-array antennas that SWISSto12 is building for UNIVITY's 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) demo satellites. - **An S-band direct radiating array** designed to connect standard 5G smartphones straight to satellites. - **A Ka-band antenna running at 26 GHz** to support broadband services and feeder links between satellites and ground infrastructure. Put both on one satellite, and UNIVITY can help telecom operators offer broadband and direct-to-device services under their own brands. The goal isn't to replace terrestrial networks. It's to fill in the gaps where towers don't reach. ### Two Startups, Plenty of Backing Both companies have been pulling in serious money in 2026. SWISSto12 raised around $79 million in January from European Space Agency member states for its HummingSat program, then closed a $66 million Series C in July. Paris-based UNIVITY brought in roughly $29 million in April from Blast, Expansion, the Deeptech 2030 fund managed by Bpifrance, and two family offices. > "UNIVITY set us an ambitious schedule; reaching Critical Design Review in less than one year was possible due to SWISSto12's proprietary and differentiated payload and antenna technology and a vertically integrated delivery model," says Emile de Rijk, CEO and founder of SWISSto12. SWISSto12 got its start in 2011 as a spin-off from de Rijk's doctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). It now focuses on satellite payloads, antenna systems, and compact geostationary satellites, leaning on 3D printing and other proprietary manufacturing tricks. UNIVITY, founded in 2022 by Charles Delfieux and formerly known as Constellation Technologies & Operations, is building a Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) constellation. ### The Bigger Picture: Sovereign Infrastructure The work sits inside UNIVITY's uniShape program, backed by France 2030 and the French Space Agency (CNES). The long-term aim is a shared, neutral space infrastructure that lets European and international telecom operators keep more control over their connectivity services. For SWISSto12, the partnership is a chance to put its HummingLink antenna and payload tech to work on a European connectivity project. The company builds passive radiating antenna components through 3D printing, pairing miniaturized, low-loss filters with beamforming electronics and digital controls. Design and manufacturing happen at its Swiss facilities, so the process stays vertically integrated from specs to finished hardware. ### What Comes Next Clearing the CDR means the antenna designs can now move into hardware production, verification, and acceptance testing. To be clear, this doesn't prove operational connectivity in orbit yet. But it's a step toward validating a satellite architecture that can handle two different 5G services at once. For anyone watching the EU Inc conversation and European startup incorporation trends, this is the kind of deep-tech milestone worth noting. It shows European startups building sovereign infrastructure from the ground up, with public funding, private capital, and cross-border collaboration all pointing in the same direction.