ESA Phi-Lab Finland Welcomes Its 2 New Startups

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At the final Space Business Forum that was held in November, Zero Gravity and SharpNav had the chance to introduce themselves to the community of Finnish space operators. The feedback from the space network was overwhelming and highly positive.
ESA Phi Lab Finland Two New Startups

Before joining the ESA Phi-Lab Finland program, the two companies successfully completed the ESA BIC Finland programme, an incubator for aspiring innovative entrepreneurs and young ambitious startups. Over the next two years, they will commercialise their research through different projects in Earth observation and low Earth orbit positioning, navigation and timing.

  • Zero Gravity is developing a new type of thermal imaging payload for small satellites allowing more detailed analysis of Earth surface temperatures from space. Their core product is UrbanAI: a data fusion tool based on satellite imagery to model the city environment, be the city digital twin and and enhance autonomous navigation in urban mobility applications.
  • SharpNav delivers below 2cm satellite positioning accuracy in GPS-jammed conditions. Increased spoofing and jamming of GNSS signals pose a serious threat to national security and key global infrastructure. These activities can disrupt critical services such as navigation, communication, and timing, which are essential for various sectors.

Additionally, ESA Phi-Lab Finland travelled to the Space Tech Expo in Bremen in mid November. At Europe's largest B2B space event, Eldrige de Melo (SharpNav) and Cedric Bodet (Zero Gravity) represented their innovations at the ESA SME and Startup booth. The ESA SME Office helps newcomers to the space industry as well as established SMEs to get involved in the R&D activities and programmes of the agency.

About ESA Phi-Lab Finland: Developed and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Phi-Lab consortium aims to commercialise space technology. In Finland, the consortium is coordinated by Aalto University, with the participation of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the National Land Survey of Finland and the University of Vaasa. This new research to business support program, will focus on space innovations, especially in the geospatial domain.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is providing €5.2 million in funding for this six-year project, of which €4.4 million will go directly to financial support for selected projects. The total budget of the activity is around €11 million and is supported by ESA, the Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation, the KAUTE Foundation and the Weisell Foundation. More information at www.esaphilab.fi

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