The European Space Agency’s commercial arm, ESA Business Applications, and ELITE, LSEG’s business support and capital raising programme, have joined forces. This joint effort will support innovative companies that are seeking to accelerate the development of their space based solutions, products and services and will help companies fast track the commercialisation of their innovation and technology.

ESA’s Investor Forum, being held today with ELITE, will see a selected cohort of ESA-backed companies presented for consideration by investors. The companies selected range from fintech to agriculture, drones, AI and IoT.  

Nick Appleyard, Head of ESA Business Applications said:

“A revolution is underway in the Space industry and in Space-using services. New commercial businesses are entering the sector at an unprecedented rate, so there are plentiful opportunities for private investment growth. European Space Agency supports the best of these businesses at an early stage and we welcome the opportunity to partner with ELITE, to help them reach their full potential in the market.”

Luca Peyrano, CEO, ELITE:

“We are delighted to partner with ESA to support some of the most dynamic, highly innovative companies accelerate their growth, With interest in space exploration reaching new heights, it has never  been more important for these companies to have access to appropriate funding. Today ELITE is proud to support over 800 companies from across 34 countries and 30 sectors.” 

About ESA Business Applications

ESA Business Applications is the mark of Europe’s best commercial ventures powered by Space. We are the commercial arm of the European Space Agency and our mission is to prove that space is open for business and has the power to improve everyday life.

ESA Business Applications empowers new commercial service developments by offering zero-equity funding and support to businesses in the form of dedicated support to project management, as well as  commercial and technical development. Businesses also benefit from ESA’s mark of credibility helping them to grow. Our supported services target any sector where space delivers value (satellite navigation location, earth observation imagery, satellite telecommunication, space weather, space technologies and other tools). Businesses can either apply to our periodically announced predefined thematic opportunities or discuss an open application to develop solutions, for any market they are interested in.     

Since our programme’s inception in 2008, ESA Business Applications has invested more than €190M in over 500 business ideas addressing markets in industries worldwide. Typical funding ranges from 60kEuro to 2MEuro and is used from early stage feasibility studies to large-scale demonstration projects.

Get in touch with us via email business@esa.int or visitbusiness.esa.int

About the European Space Agency

ESA is an Inter-governmental organisation with 22 member states. Canada is an associate member and several other European countries have cooperation agreements. Whilst ESA only funds industry from member states, players from other countries can participate in projects at their own expense; and as boosting exports is a prime goal, many of the projects serve user communities in non-ESA countries.

About ELITE

ELITE offers businesses a full programme to help them grow, including education, business support and direct contact with Europe’s financial and advisory community. In the UK, Imperial College Business School helps deliver the programme. Management teams are guided on how best to fast-track their development and capital raising processes, how to access the most suitable funding for their needs, whether private equity, venture capital or the bond or equity markets, and given advice on building their profile and reach.

ELITE also allows its vibrant international advisor and investor community the opportunity to engage with a pool of high quality, dynamic companies and entrepreneurs, all of whom are open to the advice, opportunities and connections that the programme offers.

There are over 800 businesses from across 34 countries in the ELITE community. They are generating over €61 billion in combined revenues and employ over 290,000 across Europe and internationally.

For further information on the programme, companies and the full list of partners, please go to: www.elite-growth.com

Hummingbird Technologies Ltd, who use drone and satellite technology combined with in house algorithms and AI to boost the effectiveness of farming practices, recently presented at two conferences attended by major names in politics, agriculture, technology and business; Prosperity UK and Westminster Food & Nutrition. 

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, said: 

"Across the UK there is a wealth of innovative start-ups redefining what it means to be a farmer or a land manager, and how to farm effectively and sustainably. One company, Hummingbird Technologies uses crop mapping to identify problems in drainage, compaction, nutrition, weeds and pests before they become devastating, and it can pre-emptively detect the presence of particular diseases like potato blight and blackgrass.”

Hummingbird have also featured widely in the press lately, including articles in Farmers Weekly, The Times, The Sunday Times, Agfunder, Medium and BQ Live (links below). 

Hummingbird have a team of 40-50 CAA-qualified drone pilots – many farmers and junior agronomists – that fly over crops and capture image data using state of the art multispectral cameras. The data is sent to its cloud-based platform, where Hummingbird’s expertise comes into play. Its 23 strong team of tech wizards includes data analysts, image processing experts, software engineers, machine learning specialists, remote sensing professors and bioinformatics whizzes recruited from around the globe. 

Its advisory board now includes the head of Google UK and farming giant Velcourt’s technical director, Keith Norman, with its mission to take a farmer’s crop imagery data and produce something that can directly influence management decisions in real time.

Hummingbird’s focus in the coming months is on their product offerings, recently adding Green Area Index Mapping Machine Learning to their catalogue. The benefits of which include: Accurately measuring GAI of entire fields; Targeted variable rate application of nitrogen and PGRs to optimise crop performance; Accurately defining the number and timing of nitrogen splits to each field; Determining whether a PGR will be cost effective through post-Winter mapping and; Access targeted variable rate nitrogen maps just 24 hours post flight.