Spacefounders is a Initiative by Founders@unibw, the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship program at the Bundeswehr University Munich, and the French space agency CNES. Other supporters include the ESA (European Space Agency) and the DLR (German Aerospace Center). The accelerator focuses on startups from both the upstream and downstream sectors. The goal of the program is to support European space tech startups that have completed an incubator program and are now seeking access to the private sector.
For this purpose, the 10-week program The program offers networking and incentive sessions at the two space hubs in Toulouse and Munich. It also offers online conferences and mentoring sessions. The program culminates in two Demo Days in Paris and Berlin, bringing together public funders and venture capital funds.
The first batch will begin on September 13th with a week of on-site instruction in Munich, before the virtual portion begins. During this time, workshops will be held to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each startup and to establish contacts with local partners and ecosystem stakeholders, thus shaping the roadmap for the remainder of the program.
Dcubed and Vida in the first batch of Spacefounders
Among the ten startups selected for the first batch are two young companies from Munich: Dcubed and Vida – Village Data Analytics.
Dcubed develops and markets release mechanisms for deployable structures such as antennas or sails, known as actuators. Such devices make it possible to package what are essentially large structures into small satellites and deploy them once they are in orbit. Since New Space relies heavily on small and micro-satellites, such solutions are in high demand.
Vida, on the other hand, provides companies and government agencies with information about individual villages and their local context. The startup aims to enable data-driven investment, business, and political decisions in rural villages across Africa and Asia. The startup relies on high-resolution satellite imagery, supplemented by quality-assured on-site data (e.g., on potential customers, local industry, or telecommunications).
The other startups in Batch #1 are: Infinite Orbits, Interstellar Lab, Share My Space, Zephalto and Voortex.io from France, Pangea Aerospace from Spain, Mission Space from Latvia and the Braunschweig-based company Okapi as another German participant.
