A graduate of ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) in South France, Vaonis has raised over $2.5 million for its newly-announced hybrid between a smart telescope and a camera. Designed to be the world’s most compact consumer smart telescope and positioned at an entry-level price, Vespera is the start-up’s second commercial product and sees it bidding for a prominent position in the world of amateur astronomy.

During the current health crisis, sales of astronomical instruments have surged due to a combination of people spending more time at home, limitations on travel and a desire for a return to nature. Vaonis, a start-up that specialises in the production of astronomical instruments, has seen orders of its flagship telescope Stellina (Italian for ‘little star’) more than double since the beginning of the first national lockdowns early in 2020, along with similar growth in the number of photos shared by Stellina owners.

The company’s ambition is to revolutionise the world of amateur astronomy by making it accessible to all. Now it has announced its second product, Vespera, which is a miniaturised version of Stellina aimed at a wider audience. “The team at ESA BIC Sud France helped me to turn my idea, a smart consumer telescope/camera hybrid, into a real product that is now used all over the world by hundreds of space lovers. They helped us to finance its initial development and contributed to the geolocation technology that the smart telescope requires to operate properly”, says Cyril Dupuy, founder of Vaonis.

Small, smart and social

Weighing less than 5 kg and measuring 40x20x9 cm, Stellina's little brother Vespera combines high precision optics, electronics and mechanics, plus a patented autonomous image processing algorithm. It is designed to cater for newcomers to stargazing, thanks to its ease of use and mobile app. Once the telescope is set up, users can observe the night sky’s hidden gems, including galaxies and nebulae, on their smartphone screens and then share their photos on social media. 

In addition to being the smallest smart telescope in the world, Vespera is the only such instrument to offer a shared and interactive stargazing experience, with a multi-user mode that supports up to five users. 

Fundraising for future finance

Today, Vaonis has 15 staff and expects a turnover of €1.5 million in 2020 – double that of 2019. Its famous fans include American astronauts Scott Kelly and Terry Virts.Vaonis was founded by Cyril Dupuy in 2016 and hosted at ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) South France for two years. Its initial product was Stellina, which was the first observation station to allow anyone to photograph celestial objects at the touch of a button. This won several awards, including a CES Innovation Award in 2018 and a Red Dot Design Award in 2019. In 2018, Stellina was selected for inclusion in New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s MOMA Design Store. In order to finance the production chain of its new creation, Vaonis opted to use the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. This raised $2 559 952 from 2163 backers in October 2020, far exceeding its target of $1 million. Deliveries are expected during the Christmas holidays in late 2021.

ABOUT ESA SPACE SOLUTIONS

ESA Space Solutions is the go-to-place for great business ideas involving space in all areas of society and economy. Our mission is to support entrepreneurs in Europe in the development of business using satellite applications and space technology to improve everyday life. Our programme is designed to provide multiple entry points such as ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs), ESA Technology Broker Network, and ESA Business Applications programme. Funding typically ranges from 50KEuro to 2MEuro and supports everything from space technology transfer, early stage incubation programs, Feasibility Studies to large-scale Demonstration Projects.

ESA projects in Sub-Saharan Africa are demonstrating how humankind can benefit from space technology by showing observable impact on a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

Céline Dubron and Elia Montanari from ESA Space Solutions produced several case studies analysing projects which had turned global challenges into business opportunities – with statistically significant SDGs effects.  Here we take a closer look at two out of 17 of the ESA projects implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

CASE STUDY: Sway4Edu

Combining operational and human aspects from the start was key in improving learning processes, boosting the interest of teachers and children developing IT skills. It also facilitated the creation of virtual learning communities among schools in the network. Teachers who were initially apprehensive about using ICT gradually became enthusiastic supporters of e-learning, and were even awarded recognition for their creativity in producing e-based learning material. In order to support e-learning services and internet access in rural schools of developing countries  Sway4edu developed a satellite ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solution, with the necessary tools and methodology to integrate it into daily life. Schools quickly took ownership of the initiative, with the support of the local education authority. 

The application was implemented in South Africa and Mali (the treatment group). The control group was composed of Niger and Namibia – (chosen because they showed similar trends before implementation of the application).

The team found a significant impact on the SDG indicator in the countries receiving the application. 

SDGs Indicator 4.a.1: Proportion of schools with internet access for pedagogical purposes.

CASE STUDY: SatFinAfrica

SatFinAfrica is a project set up to provide reliable and secure financial services in remote/underserved areas in African emerging countries. It enables secure and reliable financial applications such as money transfers, via a satellite-based telecommunication platform. The application has been implemented in a large number of countries: Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia, Guinea, Rwanda, Botswana, Kenya. For statistical relevance, an equally large control group: Egypt, Algeria, Lesotho, Morocco, Mozambique, Comoros, Djibouti, Sudan, Congo was used. 

The data used for this case study was expressed as remittances, received as a percentage of GDP (remittances are funds transferred from migrants to their home country). Significant impact was observed: In the countries receiving this application, personal remittances increased by 0.1 % of GDP. 

SDGs Indicator 17.3.2: Volume of remittances as a proportion of total GDP. 

Conclusion

These case studies demonstrate a tangible impact – not only at a grassroots level but also on the SDGs, promoting long-term global sustainability. 

The methodology used for these case studies is explained more fully below. 

Methodology

In order to assess statistical impact, the two case studies were reviewed against SDGs where sufficient time from deployment of the products and services had elapsed and data was available to perform impact analysis. 

To  measure the impact of a programme (or in this case; space application), the Difference in Difference (DID) methodology was used. This is a statistical technique which mimics a Randomised Controlled Trial as shown in figure 1;  the impact of a programme is measured while taking into account a ‘counterfactual’. A counterfactual is defined as the trend we would have observed in case of no intervention. 

This way it is possible to measure the effect of a treatment on a ‘treatment group’. As a counterfactual the team used a ‘control group’, i.e. similar countries with a comparable trend before the start of a programme.