The article was taken from hn.cz
Just like babies, many innovative startups need support and incubation, and in their early days they are often kept alive only by the idea and the passion of their founders. A controlled and safe environment, knowledgeable and experienced staff and (financial) injections in a startup incubator can help a young company survive situations that it would not be able to handle on its own on the open market.
In the Czech Republic, state support for startups is a relatively new issue. The idea of a fund aimed at innovative companies was toyed with more than a decade ago. However, the initial ideas failed. Startups are thus more likely to use venture capital. One of the first successful initiatives, however, is the European Space Agency ‘s ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) launched in the Czech Republic in 2016. It has been providing money and services to space startups for their development.
Half of the incubator’s money comes from the European Space Agency. However, this is a fraction of the 1.5 billion that the Department of Transportation invests in the agency annually, and it is also being returned to the country in this way. The other half is covered by the City of Prague, the South Moravian Region and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The operator of the programme in the Czech Republic is the state agency CzechInvest.
Until March this year, startups in the ESA BIC incubator could receive 50,000 euros. This year, however, the possible contribution has been increased to EUR 200,000, thanks to the link with the new state programme Technological Incubation. It started in 2022 and is to distribute CZK 680 million from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to startups in sectors important for the economic development of the Czech Republic over its five-year duration. CzechInvest is also responsible for the Technology Incubation.
“By linking the two programmes, we can increase the support of the European Space Agency with national resources and thus make the development of innovative companies in the Czech Republic as efficient as possible. In addition, space startups will gain access to our entire startup network and the space sector will be even more connected to other sectors we are working on in the Technology Incubation. For example, mobility or Tech4Life, which includes both defence and health,” explains Tereza Kubicová, Deputy for Technology Development at CzechInvest, in a press release.
According to ESA BIC Programme Manager Michal Kuneš, the link with the Technology Incubation programme is a win for startups that fail to apply for more intensive support. “By linking the programmes, they get more workshops, mentoring and overall more intensive non-monetary support,” he highlights.
ESA BIC business incubators in Prague and Brno support companies up to five years old, promising students, scientific projects with commercial potential, innovators or spin-off companies. “We are looking for projects that will find applications for existing space technologies in the non-space market or, conversely, introduce innovative terrestrial technologies to the space market,” says the ESA BIC website. Current call for entry to the incubator Ends 5. September.
If accepted, startups in ESA BIC will receive support for a maximum of two years. This consists of a comprehensive package that includes office space at a discounted rent, consulting, access to an extensive network of experts and mentors from the space industry, technical and administrative support. Business mentoring includes, for example, searching for grants or preparing a business plan presentation for investors, whom ESA BIC will also help to find and approach.
The incubator also helps startups with the technical development of a product or service. It can also connect Czech companies to domestic and foreign partners, including the European Space Agency. The first ESA BIC was set up in 2003 in the Netherlands with the aim of not only supporting start-ups but also connecting European space companies that have built their businesses with public money. That is why today startups can use patents, satellite data and know-how from the space agency and collaborate within the ESA BIC incubation network. It currently extends to twenty-one European countries and has supported over 1,600 companies. The capacity and possibilities of these incubators are growing over time, which is why more than 200 companies receive support in Europe each year.
The Czech ESA BIC has supported over 50 startups in its eight years of existence. Their products are applied in areas such as agriculture, urban planning, aviation, fisheries, tourism and many others. Startups that have gone through the incubator are now operating not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad, and some of them have already received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from private investors.
Great successes have been recorded recently, for example Dronetag. The company is making an ultralight drone device to collect location data and share it with law enforcement via a cellular network. This meets the tightening regulations on unmanned aerial vehicles and contributes to the safety of the airspace.
Towards the end of 2023, the company joined the DIANA accelerator, under the auspices of NATO, to leverage its expertise in the civilian market and contribute to safer drone use. And recently, at the end of May, Dronetag officially entered the Japanese market with its remote drone identification solution.
“This expansion means that drone pilots around the world can now use Dronetag when flying in Japanese airspace. Dronetag is the only provider whose Remote ID solutions meet the regulatory requirements of Japan, the US and the EU,” says the company’s CEO Lukáš Brchl. He adds that in addition to standards compliance, the startup offers enhancements such as a multi-platform app, advanced fleet management capabilities and comprehensive flight logs.
Stratosyst is also doing well with their airship, which compensates for the shortcomings of satellites and drones. It produces what are known as High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS), which bring satellite capabilities to lower altitudes (20 kilometres above the ground), while having lower operational costs, providing better quality data and, most importantly, continuous operations from a fixed position.
HAPS has received considerable attention and support from the Czech Ministry of Defence and the European Defence Fund. The development of an airship for Earth observation has also recently been supported by the European Space Agency’s InCubed programme, which focuses on the development of commercially viable products and services.”HAPS capabilities will lead to more comprehensive data on climate and natural processes, strengthen the early warning system, civil security and military intelligence,” says Stratosyst CEO Jiří Pavlík
Among other companies that have left the ESA BIC incubator and successfully entered independent life is the start-up Festka. It makes luxury lightweight bikes from aerospace composite materials and sells them worldwide. Or, for example, Spacemanic in Brno, which produces and sends nanospheres into space on order for companies or state institutions. The incubator has also supported projects that develop and manufacture drones, X-ray machines to authenticate artwork, and apps that help farmers.
ESA BIC also has a startup Entrant, which used mentoring and support in the initial (seed) phase of its business. It produces a device of the same name for monitoring and interpreting human stress. It targets the hard-to-reach defence, space and aerospace industries, where stress can play a key role.
At a more advanced, but still early stage, is another graduate – the unique Hydronaut training station. Thanks to the specific water conditions, it is the only one in the Czech Republic that offers space for so-called analogue missions, i.e. simulations of real space missions. The station is also used to test technologies for the space industry.
Some of the startups that have passed through ESA BIC or are still under its care are presented every year at the Czech Space Week, the largest domestic space conference. It is usually held in autumn and offers a multi-day programme for professionals and the general public.
Startups in ESA BIC also participate in Czech events such as the Startup World Cup & Summit or the Science Fair, but also go to foreign conferences with the help of the incubator and CzechInvest. They can get to EU Space Week, the Space Tech Expo in Bremen, Germany, or the International Astronautical Congress, where they can present their product and get further investment in their business.
The article was published in a special supplement of HN Aviation Industry.
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