Space Academy Paris Gathers Space Tech Entrepreneurs from across Europe

Space Academy Paris, the fourth Space Academy from European funded project SpaceUp, took place on the 8^th March 2021 organised by IASP – the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation.

Due to continued travel restrictions for the Cornavirus pandemic, the Space Academy sessions were conducted through a virtual platform, which allowed companies from across the globe to take part and network with others. 337 participants (including startups, experts, and investors) from 47 countries joined the Space Academy, with 222 B2B meetings set up. Before the Space Academy, 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. During the event, as well as attending sessions each startup participated in 6 intensive one-to-one consultation meetings with SpaceUp experts to review the report findings and ask questions on the following topics: 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 9^th-10^th March, which is an online conference bringing together actors working in the space industry, such as space agencies, organisations, startups and investors, attracting 660 visitors.

SpaceUp held a panel session at Paris Space Week discussing “From Space to Earth: Investing in Downstream Applications”, which was attended by more than 100 people. Four panellists discussed the potential of space technologies, the funding landscape and what trends they see emerging in the market. The panellists were Jeff Crusey from Seraphim Capital, Christian Ziach from High-Tech Gruenderfonds, Reima Linnanvirta from Finnish Business Angels Network and Lorenzo Scatena from Fondazione E. Amaldi, and Alicia Shelley from IASP as moderator. Three winners of the SpaceUp pitch competition, ConstellR, Klepsydra Technologies and PowerUp Technologies, presented their pitches and answered questions from investors during the panel session.

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

About SpaceUp:
SpaceUp is a Horizon 2020 funded project and aims to contribute at a European level to the safeguarding and further development of a competitive and entrepreneurial space industry and to ease the transition for European space start-ups to becoming 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 at least start-ups come to market exploitation.

SpaceUp project consortium:

SpaceUp Consortium

About IASP:

IASP, the International Associations of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, is a worldwide membership-based network of science and technology parks (STPs), areas of innovation (AOIs), innovation districts and hubs, knowledge-based incubation projects and the like, established in 1984. IASP brings together 350 members in 76 countries and they are heavily involved in the innovation community, connecting their members, facilitating partnerships and international networking.