Seraphim Space Camp today revealed the startups that are participating in their Mission 3 accelerator programme, the UK’s first dedicated accelerator for global startups in the SpaceTech industry. Featuring seven new startups, the accelerator programme is being run from the offices of global law firm Dentons at London’s St Pauls.
Launched by Seraphim Capital in 2018, Seraphim Space Camp is a nine-week programme, culminating in an Investor Day. The first two cohorts (16 companies) have collectively raised or had offers of around £20m in private investment and grants over the last nine months and have created 58 job opportunities since completing the programme.
Four new corporate partners join Seraphim Space Camp for 2019 – the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Lab (Dstl), unmanned aircraft systems company AeroVironment, ground station services provider Kongsberg Satellite Services and leading satellite provided Eutelsat. They join returning partners Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Dentons, Cyient, Inmarsat, the European Space Agency and SA Catapult.
On joining the programme Steven Gitlin, Vice President of Corporate Strategy at AeroVironment said: “Participating in the Seraphim Space Camp provides us with valuable access to an innovative and relevant cadre of global entrepreneurs. We look forward to working with Seraphim and its next mission to foster new ideas and capabilities that can contribute to our dynamic industry.”
Michael O’Callaghan, Space Programme Manager at DSTL also stated: “We are incredibly excited to be coming on board for the 2019 programme. From advanced space technologies, through to state-of-the-art earth observation start-ups; Seraphim Space Camp’s deal-flow of companies has huge applications within the Defence and Security Sector”.
The Mission 3 programme includes 18 full days in person, and six corporate discovery days with Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Cyient, European Space Agency, and Satellite Applications Catapult. It also includes a series of workshops and one-to-one mentoring sessions from SpaceTech professionals, advisors, and investors, and pitch practice sessions. There will also be 13 Fireside chats and keynote speakers during the programme, which includes some of the world’s leading SpaceTech entrepreneurs and investors.
Rob Desborough, Investment Director at Seraphim Capital and Director of Seraphim Space Camp Accelerator, said: “We’re incredibly excited to welcome seven new startups to the accelerator. They follow in the footsteps of our Alumni, who have raised or had offers of around £20m so far, which is a fantastic endorsement to the success of the programme and the relationships forged during the nine-week period.
“We are looking to identify the top one per-cent of seed-stage SpaceTech startups to participate in the programme, and it’s always a rigorous process with our partners to narrow the applicants down to the final seven startups that have now embarked on Mission 3. We believe each of these companies has the potential to make a significant commercial impact across their specific markets.”
Full information about the cohort members is below:
aXenic is a global leader in the design, development and production
of optical modulators for communications and sensing. It has developed a revolutionary optical modulator which is a vital component to transfer high quantities of data through satellite links. Its strongly patented solution is a fraction of the weight and size of existing solutions whilst still providing greater bandwidth.
ConstelIR (Fellowship) is a spin-out from Fraunhofer University. It is the first company to map precise on-earth temperatures from a constellation of satellites it plans to launch. This orbital temperature monitoring system will be 3% of the cost of existing solutions without losing measurement accuracy.
Hawa Dawa combines its proprietary IoT smart sensor data with other sources of data (including satellite data) to give highly accurate data on air quality. Within two years’ traction with Siemens, IBM, SwissCom, Swiss Pos as well as 8 cities in Germany demonstrates that the company’s end-to-end solution is really needed by the market.
Methera Global plans to launch a constellation flexible and dynamic satellites, focusing all of its bandwidth to a small area of target regions from multiple satellites. Providing an increase in capacity which is 10 times greater than planned systems, initial customers are the likes of emergency response services helping communities who don’t currently have access to the internet – 4B of the world’s population.
Trik is an enterprise drone 3D mapping software for structural inspection with a unique platform. Its platform transforms the data into a customisable 3D model which can be updated on a regular basis.
Xonaspace (Fellowship) uses an XPS and LEO satellite constellation for extremely precise GPS systems, with early end applications including autonomous vehicles.
Veoware’s vision is to industrialise the space sector so that hardware, software and data become easily accessible and rapidly available for the benefit of humankind. This is made possible due to its team of world-renowned experts with 100+ years of experience.
–ENDS–
About Seraphim Space Camp
Seraphim Space Camp is the UK’s first dedicated accelerator programme for start-ups in the SpaceTech industry. Launched by Seraphim Capital, the world’s only venture capital fund specialising exclusively in SpaceTech investment, the programme is backed by both the UK and European Space Agencies as well as by corporate partners such as Dentons, Rolls Royce and Cyient.
Taking a “VC-mindset” approach to the accelerator concept, the founders of Seraphim Space Camp believe that investability should be a prerequisite for companies’ participation in the programme, not the endgame.
The value proposition is designed to attract the ‘best of breed‘ high growth technology companies that are best addressing the biggest challenges facing corporates and the wider SpaceTech industry, and to support them in achieving commercial scale by creating tangible outcomes beyond simply funding.
Seraphim Space Camp is creating an ecosystem and community support network to ensure that participating start-ups are equipped to maintain their accelerated growth beyond the completion of the programme, providing mentoring from more established companies from the Seraphim Capital portfolio, opportunities to work with invested corporate partners on proof-of-concepts and other technology integrations, and ongoing access to facilities and resources in locations around the world.
About Seraphim Capital
Seraphim Capital is a London-based venture capital fund manager with £100 million under management and the manager for the world’s first SpaceTech focused venture fund.
The Seraphim Space Fund is the world’s first venture fund dedicated to financing the growth of companies operating in the space ecosystem. We Invest in companies that are transforming global industries through the generation, enhancement, and application of satellite- and drone-enabled data.
Seraphim typically invests at Series A stage into IP-led businesses that have the potential to redefine large existing markets or create entirely new ones. Over the last decade, this has included artificial intelligence (computer vision, neural networks, machine learning), the Internet of Things (software, sensors), and advanced materials (polymers, semiconductors). Collectively, the Seraphim team has more than 100 years’ experience, having invested in more than 200 early- and growth-stage businesses. For more information, please visit: http://www.seraphimcapital.co.
Media enquiries
For further information, or to arrange to speak to Seraphim Space Camp or Seraphim Capital, please contact the press office:
FieldHouse Associates
E: spacecamp@
T: +44 (0) 7500 828 324 (Iain Alexander)
T: +44 (0) 7739 322 503 (Neil Robertson)
