Elevating Engineering with Valispace’s Acquisition by Altium

In the landscape of engineering, where innovation and commitment are the cornerstone of success, the Valispace team brings something new to Systems and Requirements Engineering. Established with a vision to redefine the way engineers collaborate and design complex systems, Valispace has swiftly become a leader in its domain. With a dedication to excellence and a passion for finding simple ways to do complex things, the company has garnered acclaim for its cutting-edge solutions and transformative impact on the industry. After 8 years of success and growth, the former ESA BIC Northern Germany incubatee, Valispace has recently been acquired by Altium, the most widely used and fastest growing solutions provider for electronics worldwide. This strategic move signals a profound shift in product development, promising to revolutionize the way engineers collaborate, design, and innovate.

A Vision for Efficiency and Effectiveness
The origins of Valispace trace back to the startup ecosystem of Bremen, Germany, where a team of engineers, including co-founder and CEO Marco Witzmann and co-founder Louise Lindblad, laid the foundation for their vision. With Marco’s extensive experience from working on Europe’s biggest Satellite Program (Meteosat Third Generation) as a Systems Engineer, and Louise’s background in developing satellites and drones at the European Space Agency (ESA), the team was well-equipped to embark on their mission. Their goal was crystal clear: to provide engineers with the tools and resources necessary to navigate the complexities of modern product development seamlessly.

The Valispace platform promises to enable small teams to design highly complex systems rapidly and affordably, while also empowering larger teams to achieve engineering feats that once seemed like magic.

A Game-Changer for Systems Engineering
Valispace provides a pioneering tool that integrates engineering values into requirements, empowering engineers to specify stellar products efficiently. By parametrising requirements within Valispace, critical engineering data such as mass, speed, and power consumption can be seamlessly linked to formulas, calculations, and simulations, significantly streamlining the design process while ensuring accuracy. This dynamic approach prevents unnecessary recalculations, saving valuable time and resources, and offers transparent insight into the origin and connections of requirements, facilitating collaboration and informed decision-making.

Valispace CEO, Marco Witzmann explains, “in the end, for us, it’s always about customer value. We’re always asking ourselves, is there anything here that can make life easier for our customers?”

This question is one that is central to the Valispace team. For example, the use of AI within their platform at a time where AI was still viewed with scepticism. The potential for great outcomes for Valispace users and customers was too great for the Valispace team to say “no” to. This desire to provide the best solutions to their customers, coupled with their innate curiosity and drive, is what propelled Valispace ahead of its competitors to become the first engineering software to be powered by advanced AI.

Valispace’s transformative impact extends beyond individual projects to revolutionize the field of Systems Engineering as a whole. By providing a centralized repository for requirements management, design documentation, and collaboration, Valispace streamlines the entire product development lifecycle, from initial concept to deployment. With its innovative approach and AI-powered capabilities, Valispace empowers engineering teams to navigate the complexities of modern product development with unparalleled efficiency and effectiveness, driving forward innovation and accelerating time-to-market.

Marco and Louise founded Valispace with a vision to redefine the way engineers collaborate and design complex systems (© Valispace).

The Role of ESA BIC Northern Germany
In the first stages of their journey, Valispace participated in the ESA BIC Northern Germany business incubation programme for young startups. Through this programme, Valispace gained access to resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities, all with the hope of expanding their audience within the aeronautics and space industry.

On advice for young startups within the programme, Marco reflects, “startups are always about creating opportunities. You never know precisely what will work, but it’s partly about trying enough things in the hope that one of them will be your breakthrough… what we’ve learned throughout this process is that you have to start accessing the potential upside of things instead of the mean expected value of it. We look at an idea or opportunity and we ask ourselves, ‘if this goes right, could this be an avalanche? Could this be the thing that gives us that breakthrough? Altium was one of those things.”

Forward Futures: Valispace Joins Altium
In early 2023, Altium, a leading provider of advanced software-based solutions for the electronics industry, reached out to Valispace with a vision for collaboration. Recognising Valispace’s expertise in requirements and systems engineering, Altium sought to integrate Valispace’s capabilities into their cloud platform, Altium 365. It was important for Marco, Louise, and their team to get a sense of the people behind the growing industry giant, so they flew to the US to meet with Altium face to face. From that point onwards, the team at Valispace and the people behind Altium banded together in a partnership that would only grow stronger with time.

Through a series of collaborative efforts and one very successful webinar, it became evident that this partnership between Valispace and Altium was not only beneficial, but also a fusion of expertise highly sought after by many in the industry.

“We did a webinar with them in September 2023, which ended up being one of their most viewed webinars. As we could both see that our collaboration was interesting to many people, we came to the question – wouldn’t it make sense to take this one step further? And that’s how the idea of Valispace actually becoming part of Altium came about,” explains Marco.

The acquisition of Valispace by Altium marked a significant milestone in bridging the gap between electronics hardware design and systems engineering, offering engineers an integrated approach to product development. Altium’s clear ambitions and compatibility with Valispace’s mindset and values made the acquisition a natural progression, positioning the loyal customers of both companies at the forefront of accelerated growth.

A Partnership for Growth and Success
The acquisition of Valispace by Altium represents more than just a business transaction; it signifies a visionary partnership driven by a shared commitment to innovation and customer value. Recently, in February 2024, Altium entered into an agreement to be acquired by the Tokyo based semiconductor manufacturer Renesas. Renesas, Altium and Valispace, under a shared vision, aim to build an integrated and open electronics system design and lifecycle management platform that unifies these steps at a system level. Together, they are poised to reshape the landscape of product development, offering engineers the tools and resources they need to bring their ideas to life – quickly and efficiently. As they embark on this transformative journey, the fusion of Altium and Valispace serves as a testament to the power of innovation, collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

Next milestone for Marco and Louise: Altium, a leading provider of design software for the electronics industry, acquired Valispace. In February 2024 Tokyo based semiconductor manufacturer Renesas in turn acquired Altium. Renesas, Altium and Valispace, under a shared vision, aim to build an integrated and open electronics system design and lifecycle management platform (© Valispace).

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 at the Bremer Innovations- und Technologiezentrum BITZ as well as the Digihub Industry – two of the largest innovation and technology centres for high-tech companies and startups in the German federal state of 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 e.V. supports the incubatees with its network, public relations work, and targeted coaching not only during the incubation period, but also afterwards as alumni. STARTHAUS Bremen & Bremerhaven 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.

Technical support of the ESA BIC Northern Germany is offered by Fraunhofer IFAM, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar Research AWI, Bremen University, Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity ZARM, Airbus Group, ArianeGroup, AES Aircraft Elektro/Elektronik System, DSI Aerospace, and OHB.