Farming by smartphone. Creating artistic, personalised products using satellite imagery. Building a better back nine from space. And monitoring road safety issues without a human in sight.
These aren’t clips from some sci-fi future. It’s all happening now – thanks to EU Space and 11 very innovative European start-ups.
The start-ups are the winners of the #myEUspace competition, a EUSPA initiative supporting the development of innovative commercial applications that leverage data coming from the EU Space Programme.
Launched in September 2021 as part of the European Commission’s CASSINI Space Entrepreneurship Initiative and with over EUR 1 million in prize money on the line, #myEUspace is one of the biggest competitions ever organised by EUSPA.
And the winners are…
Following an intense nine-week process of fine-tuning prototypes and products, refining business plans and making final pitches to a scrutinising panel of judges, the competition’s winners were announced at EUSPA’s Entrepreneurship Day.
While the selected solutions cover such diverse sectors as location-based services, smart mobility, geomatics and precision agriculture, they all share a foundation in their use of data coming from Galileo, Copernicus or a synergistic combination of the two.
So, without further ado, let us introduce to you 11 of Europe’s hottest, most disruptive space-based start-ups:
Track 1:
• SANGENE: integrated GNSS-based passive radar for the detection and first localisation of obstacles.
• EO4ART: web application for artistic and personalised products based on satellite images acquired over a specific region of interest.
• ALTIWAVE: satellite-derived regional wave heights for the marine energy sector.
• Master Map: automatic road mapping status for maintenance optimisation.
• VirtualCrop: application for sustainable precision farming that turns phones into data gathering and analysis tools.
• RIGOROUS: efficient and effective development and deployment of solutions based on using Randomness-Intensive algorithms for near-real-time route optimisation.
Track 2:
• C-ITS Platform: increased road safety, powered by Galileo and Copernicus.
• E20.Green: intelligent platform powered by GNSS, AI, EO and IoT that enables golf courses and urban green spaces to effectively manage their assets, operations and land.
• SPAI: solution to easily integrate satellite analytics into the work practices of expert and non-expert users, effortlessly extracting the value of EO using AI.
• SOILSPECT: automatic monitoring of ground settlement happening at construction sites.
• Agricircle: dashboard for monitoring the outcome of regenerative agriculture initiatives.
Defining the future today
While the competition may be over, for these 11 start-ups, the work is just beginning. Armed with up to EUR 50,000 in prize money and ready access to additional sources of financing, mentoring and incubation, the winners will now work to further develop their products and services and move them towards commercialisation.
"Space data and services are driving innovation and enabling disruptive technologies in a wide range of sectors", says EUSPA Executive Director, Rodrigo da Costa. "Start-ups have been particularly enthusiastic in embracing the potential offered by the EU Space Programme. I would like to congratulate the winners and also the participants for the effort they put."
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