Space Academy Paris gathers Space Tech entrepreneurs from across Europe

IASP recently organised Space Academy Paris, the fourth Space Academy from European funded project SpaceUp.

SpaceUp is a Horizon 2020 funded project that supports development of a competitive and entrepreneurial space industry in Europe, and helps European space startups to become mature companies. It does this via activities offering expertise, customised coaching services, one-to-one meetings and matchmaking and hosting a series of Space Academies throughout Europe, directly helping startups come to market exploitation.

With Space Academy conducted on a virtual platform, companies from across the globe were able to take part in sessions and network with others. 337 participants (including startups, experts, and investors) from 47 countries participated, with 222 B2B meetings set up.

10 selected startups each received four personalised studies on their companies from experts on business model design, intellectual property rights, and access to finance and human resources.  They also participated in 6 intensive one-to-one consultation meetings with SpaceUp experts to review the report findings and ask questions on business development, IPR, access to finance, HR, working with business angels and finance for innovation. Meanwhile, other participants were in workshops discussing key topics related to business, technology and the European space sector.

Space Academy Paris was held back-to-back with the Paris Space Week on 9th-10th March, an online conference bringing together actors working in the space industry, such as space agencies, organisations, startups and investors. SpaceUp also held a panel session at Paris Space Week moderated by IASP’s director of Knowledge management & partnerships Alicia Shelley, discussing “From Space to Earth: Investing in Downstream Applications”.  

Panellists Jeff Crusey (Seraphim Capital), Christian Ziach (High-Tech Gruenderfonds), Reima Linnanvirta (Finnish Business Angels Network) and Lorenzo Scatena (Fondazione E. Amaldi) discussed the potential of space technologies, the funding landscape and what trends they see emerging in the market. The three winners of the SpaceUp pitch competition, ConstellR, Klepsydra Technologies and PowerUp Technologies, also presented their pitches and answered questions from investors during the panel session.

The next Space Academy Europe will take place on 16th – 18th June, and the call for applications for startups and entrepreneurs is open until the 11th of April. https://apply.space-academy.eu/calls/space-academy-europe/