Apple picker Press Release: From the initial idea to the establishment of the company and the final expansion in the market is a long road full of obstacles. How to overcome them and how to build a successful startup from an initial project is being advised for the fifth year by the ESA BIC Prague space incubator, which is operated by the CzechInvest agency. During its tenure, thirty-one out of a possible thirty-four technological startups with an overlap into spac have already been or are being incubated there. Two of the newly incubated startups will be presented for the first time at Tuesday's online panel discussion, which takes place as part of this year's space activities festival Czech Space Week. This year, the organizers, which are the Ministry of Transport together with the CzechInvest agency and other partners, organized it online due to the current situation.
In addition to financial support, the startup receives other benefits after incubation
The space incubator ESA BIC Prague was founded in May 2016 as part of the network of business incubation centers of the European Space Agency (ESA). Two years later, the Brno branch of ESA BIC Brno was added to it. These incubation centers provide facilities and support to innovative technology startups that work with space technologies, further develop them and seek their commercial use on Earth. "At CzechInvest, we try to help and simplify processes so that it makes sense for companies. We organize various hackathons where we look for innovative ideas and solutions. If we find an idea, we try to help it from the establishment of the company to the launch of the product on the market." says Tereza Kubicová from the CzechInvest agency, who also chairs the ESA BIC Prague Steering Committee.
At the moment when the startup is selected by the evaluation committee, up to two years of incubation follows, which includes, in addition to financial support, a whole range of benefits based on daily contact. The incubated startup receives the necessary information or support, for example, when creating a business strategy or marketing plans, goes through various trainings and workshops and is connected to other people who can take it further.
Experience from incubation will be shared by Czech and foreign startups
Jakub Kapuš, who fundamentally helped the democratization of space exploration with his startup Spacemanic, will talk about his experiences in the incubator at Tuesday's online panel discussion. He is dedicated to the construction of so-called cubestats, i.e. satellites with a size of 10 x 10 centimeters. Thanks to this size, more satellites can be flown into space on one rocket at the same time. Therefore, the journey to space is easier and cheaper for customers. Spacemanic's clients can be, for example, university teams or commercial companies.
Martin Kubíček, founder of the UptimAI startup dedicated to mathematical modeling and probabilistic algorithms, which have been proven to reduce the rate of product failure, will also speak at the panel discussion. Thanks to this unique algorithm, for example, engines become more efficient, cars safer or bridge structures more stable.
Among the foreign participants, the founder of the Indian company Numer8 - a company that focuses on working with data - will introduce herself. She entered the incubator with the startup O'fish, which wants help to regulate overfishing and support smaller fishermen. Thanks to the use of satellite data, it can determine suitable fishing spots and at the same time cover those where there are already too many boats.
The biggest attraction for Czech Space Week visitors will be the presentation of two newly incubated projects at ESA BIC Prague. In addition, one of these startups will speak directly at the panel discussion.
The End of year conference is not traditionally held until May
CzechInvest will present the final thirty-four startups only in May, when the first five-year period of ESA BIC Prague's activity will end. "Traditionally, every year at Czech Space Week, we hold an End of Year conference, where we present newly incubated companies and the successes of those that have been there for a long time. We can't do this event this year due to the coronavirus, so we decided to postpone it to May next year and make a kind of Final conference, where we will present the biggest achievements of the entire five years of ESA BIC." explains Tereza Kubicová.
Until then, you can read on medallions of six interesting startups on the Czech Space Week blog.
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