Lift-off for the AITS Summit in Bremen
02.03.2023
New member of AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V.: OptoPrecision Airborne Systems GmbH
16.03.2023
ESA BIC Northern Germany startup reaches final round of Social Innovation Awards
Unleash Future Boats is the name of the German finalist of the sixth Fundación MAPFRE Social Innovation Awards. The startup from Schleswig-Holstein was the first German company in the history of the competition to secure a place in the final among the 347 projects in the current edition.
The competition is an initiative sponsored by Fundación MAPFRE in collaboration with Spain’s IE University. The aim of the awards, which totals 120,000 Euros, is to find innovative solutions to improve mobility and safety, promote health and support active aging. To this end, prize money of 40,000 Euros has been awarded in each of the three categories.
The multiple award-winning company “Unleash Future Boats” from Schleswig is entering its retrofit kit for powering boats and ships with green hydrogen to replace diesel engines in the competition. Their goal is to provide shipyards around the world with a completely emission-free system, helping to decarbonize and protect the planet.
The 12 finalists from Spain, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, the United States and Germany will compete in Madrid on May 24, 2023, where the three winners will be crowned.
More information about the Fundación MAPFRE Social Innovation Awards is available online at Fundación MAPFRE (fundacionmapfre.org).
Read more about ESA BIC incubatee Unleash Future Boats: UNLEASH FUTURE BOATS: THE MOBILITY OF THE FUTURE IS ON WATER
Or watch the video UNLEASH FUTURE BOATS: A SUCCESS STORY.
The co-founders in front of their “ZeroOne”. The floating technology carrier combines emission-free, whisper-quiet drive technology with autonomous systems (© Gateway 49).
About Fundación MAPFRE
Fundación MAPFRE is a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to contribute to the progress of society, improve people’s quality of life and promote equal opportunities through activities in more than 30 countries. In 2022, more than 5 million people benefited from its 260 programs.
About Unleash Future Boats
Unleash Future Boats is developing an ecosystem around electric autonomous boats and ships with fully digital ports, shipyards and joint ventures: “Rewriting the Rulebook of Maritime Transportation”. Completely emission-free, Unleash Future Boats provides solutions for clean and sustainable mobility and logistics on the water.
New regulations require the conversion of hundreds of thousands of boats in just a few years – worldwide. More than 122 million tons of CO2 are caused by maritime transport in the EU, which is about 3.7% of total CO2 emissions. Green Boats Engineering, a subsidiary of Unleash Future Boats GmbH, offers complete retrofit kits. Simple. Safe. Secure. Powered by green hydrogen and fuel cells.
About ESA BIC Northern Germany
The Incubation Centre of the European Space Agency in Northern Germany (ESA BIC Northern Germany) is headquartered jointly with the Bremen aeronautics and space industries association AviaSpace Bremen at the BITZ, the largest innovation and technology centre for high-tech companies and startups in Bremen. The ESA BIC Northern Germany brings new startup opportunities to the region and thus strengthens the aeronautics and space sector in the German federal state of Bremen. AviaSpace Bremen supports the incubatees with its network, public relations work and targeted coaching not only during the incubation period, but also afterwards as alumni. Starthaus is the central point of contact in the Bremen startup ecosystem and supports the startups on all issues relating to business development and financing. The ESA BIC Northern Germany is managed by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO), an international networking and branding company for the European space programmes that also manages ESA BIC Bavaria with three locations in southern Germany.
Since 2021, ESA BIC Northern Germany has also been offering its service to space-related startups in Schleswig-Holstein. The Technikzentrum Lübeck with GATEWAY49, AviaSpace Bremen and AZO jointly operate this extension of ESA BIC Northern Germany. There are also plans to extend ESA BIC Northern Germany to the northern German federal states of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin-Brandenburg.
