ESA’s Business Incubation Centres (BICs) work to inspire entrepreneurs to turn space-connected business ideas into commercial companies, and provide technical expertise and business development support alongside zero-equity funding of EUR 50.000. The ESA BIC network has so far supported more than 800 start-ups and is present in 21 countries and over 60 locations.
Entrepreneurs in 20 ESA BICs, in 17 European countries, spread over more than 60 cities, profit from the technical expertise and business development provided by the BICs together with their national partners and ESA. So far more than 800 start-ups were incubated.
The interesting part of this huge investment from ESA Member States is that the life of these assets does not end but starts in space! In fact, behind these developments lies an enormous “reuse” potential which is accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, students or companies. So most of the start-ups we support indeed use space as a starting point to develop a business on non-space markets (so-called “downstream” markets), such as mobility, agriculture, environment or health.
Also to be noted, the ESA BICs also welcome entrepreneurs looking to contribute to the increasingly growing commercial space market! In this “upstream” approach, alongside large institutional organisations and incumbent companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs get involved in launching rockets and satellites and work intensely to achieve technological breakthroughs for instance with advanced materials and using emerging technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain or robotics.
Opened in 2016 as part of the Europe-wide BIC network, managed and coordinated by Science Park Graz in close partnership with accent Inkubator, ESA BIC Austria draws on both organisation’s outstanding track record in high-tech business incubation – providing a unique environment geared exclusively to accelerating innovation and unlocking your commercial potential. With more than 18 years’ experience in business incubation, Science Park Graz and accent have so far supported more than 300 technology and innovation projects.
ESA BIC Austria provides to 10 companies per year a package of impactful business and technical support, the integration in the European-wide space start-up network built by all ESA BICs, zero-equity funding of Eur 50.000, international visibility and the credibility of the ESA brand.
In addition, the companies benefit from the powerful and prosperous Austrian ecosystem, strongly connected to our partners:
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