The celebratory ESA BIC Launchpad event was held in the western hall of the National Museum during the Czech Space Week festival. Ten startups were honoured in the course of the event, as they had successfully completed the space incubation programme of ESA BIC Czech Republic, and five new startups that are just beginning incubation were introduced. The event was attended by representatives of the European Space Agency and the Ministry of Transport, as well as important guests including former NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel.
“Every year, Czech Space Week clearly shows that Czechia has something to offer in the space industry. Events such as ESA BIC Launchpad illustrate the fact that the connection between well-established companies, startups and institutions is crucially important for the development of our space ecosystem. I’m pleased that we can be witnesses to the growing importance of Czech companies on the European scale,” Tereza Kubicová, deputy director for technology development at CzechInvest and co-founder of Czech Space Week.
The programme included appearances by Geraldine Naji, director for commercialisation, industry and competitiveness at ESA, Ondřej Šváb of the Ministry of Transport, and former NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel, who now works for the company VAST. In the course of the evening, Terra Metallum, the team of students who won the international final of the seventh CASSINI hackathon, also received the opportunity to give a presentation of their work.
“Over the past several years, we have achieved major successes within the European Space Agency’s incubation programme. We have selected 58 startups for incubation since 2016. Without ESA BIC, most of them would not have been established at all or they would not have been able to bring their development to fruition. Our statistics show that for every euro invested from ESA BIC funds, private investors contribute more than ten euros, which is a clear indicator of these startups’ quality and viability,” said Michal Kuneš, ESA BIC Czech Republic programme manager.
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