Skyrocketing startups of Future Space Accelerator

It has been exactly two months since Future Space began accelerating. The lucky seven startups selected by the program partners: Airbus Poland, Cleanproject, SatRevolution and PwC Polska, didn’t need a special invitation to scale up. The moment they met their mentors, they began working hard to achieve the next level. Sky is not the limit any more. This being a spacetech program, there is no other limit but space – the final frontier.

From the very start, we were curious as to how the startups were doing, monitoring their progresses, and asking for feedback. Two very important questions came to our minds immediately after the inauguration and we asked the startups for their opinions. Every startup company that applies to an acceleration program has certain expectations as to what will happen in the course of the program and after its conclusion. And that was our first question. The second concerned their next steps – what they were hoping for in the nearest future as a consequences of their participation in Future Space Accelerator. Four startups decided to share their impressions.

The team behind SGPR.TECH was the first to answer. They are the creators of the Spectral Ground Penetrating Radar – that’s where the company’s name comes from. Their goal is to revolutionize the way how subsurface structures are analyzed. Possible applications or their invention are bountiful. Fully transformed for purposes of Industry 4.0 in fields dependent on terrain information, it has the potential to be a game changer! The creators, thanks to their innovative, unorthodox approach to georadars and proprietary software for geophysical analysis, will not only be able to accurately illustrate the subsurface structure, but also to recognize materials, rocks, minerals, metals etc. as well as their characteristics. And most importantly, SGPR as a technological platform gives the opportunity to build an almost infinite number of solutions tailored to the requirements of various industries, ranging from mining and construction industries to applications – you guessed it – in space.

Why did they apply to Future Space Accelerator? Simple: to better understand the needs of the space industry. Understanding them, but maybe more importantly understanding the specifics of this industry and how it works, is essential to develop new applications for their Spectral Ground Penetrating Radar. Let’s not beat about the bush – they are looking to the stars, because they want their solution to be used on satellites. And what better partner to do that than SatRevolution whose nanosatellites are already orbiting the Earth?

But know-how alone is not enough. A company like that also needs funding for further development of their disruptive innovation and a program like Future Space Accelerator is the best way to attract potential investors. After all, one of its partners is PwC – a global consultancy company whose client database is staggering. In CEE alone, it has thousands of clients. Their goal is to obtain funds in Round A as soon as possible, so they can successfully expand their operations, including the expansion to new markets. They also told us they were excited for the upcoming joint software development and for the tests that were later to come.

Composi-Tech, the creators of the technology of an adaptive honeycomb panel that can be used in aviation, on land as well as in space, were also very happy to join the program. The solution they propose offers replacing the honeycomb panel’s aluminum core with a 3D-printed material which will locally increase the stiffness of the fastening area. As a result two things are optimized: stress distribution on various construction elements and the fastening process itself. Basically, the startup founders’ aim is to increase the level of automation of mass-optimized load-bearing structures. Optimization in their case is a key word.

Why did they join Future Space Accelerator? Again the answer is simple although here it resembles a chain of cause and effect. First of all, they need a reliable partners to develop their technology and they found one in Airbus – a leading company present on the aerospace market since the 1970s. Having developed the technology, the next logical step is proper validation. Which in turn is then commercialized and monetized. However, to be successful in this industry which is known to be conservative, they need a proven partner. Otherwise, it’s quite hard to penetrate a market which looks skeptically on inventors presenting bold innovative solutions. That’s why thorough validation with a reliable partner is a vital step in their acceleration.

And since Future Space Accelerator connected the Composi-Tech team with a potential recipient of their solution, validation is just a matter of time and putting their partner’s know-how to good use. Whereas should one ask them about the future, they will answer that they would like to later continue cooperation in this field and they expect to learn about the technical requirements of space components. Yes, they want to go to the orbit and beyond.

A slightly different technology is being developed by Skin Lab – the only biotech selected for the pilot edition of Future Space Accelerator. In a nutshell, their solution could be described as autologous stem cell transplantation in aesthetic medicine. The company’s founders are developing a technology that enables isolation and multiplication of autologous fibroblasts in GMP conditions (which stands for Good Manufacturing Practice) that can be used in the field of anti-aging medicine. Basically, the idea is to biopsy and isolate the patients’ stem cells, multiply them to a therapeutic value in controlled conditions, and auto-transplant to the target rejuvenation site. Easier said than done.

They joined the program, as they were looking for a partner who would help them navigate the rough seas of international biotech markets and has a database of clients that might potentially become their partners or customers. Thus far, they’ve met several times with Cleanproject, a leading force on the European clean room market, and are making significant progress. To sum up, Skin Lab hopes that having “graduated” from the program, they will be ready to conquer international markets with their ground-breaking cutting-edge tech. Half-jokingly they add that if ever the need arises to send stem cells into space for tests, they will be more than happy to do that!

The last of our startups to tell us their impressions is FitMech. The concept of its founders is to combine vibration sensors and intelligent algorithms, thanks to which one can quickly and without additional investment obtain precise information about production machines. The sensor, which are obviously very sensitive, can be used for numerous applications and their power combined with that of their proprietary intelligent algorithms allows for real-time live monitoring, analysis of work details, performance measuring and reports, as well as downtime cause identification, and the list does not end here. One of the major advantages of their solutions is that the whole system is designed for independent implementation.

And what did they expect, as they were joining the program? First and foremost, they wanted to get involved in a practical business project that would check the potential of the concept of performance monitoring based on machine vibration analysis. In other words, they were looking for a reliable validation of their idea and solution. Since they were looking for a practical approach, they chose to test their solution in one of the program partner’s existing projects, this partner being Cleanproject.

Their plans for the future? Simple! When this edition of Future Space Accelerator has ended, they would like to establish a long-term cooperation with the partner they’re working with and PwC. Their quest: to conquer the international industry.

Startups, good luck!