OUR ALUMNI COMPANIES
Here you will find some of our alumni portfolio companies.
Each of our great companies has been selected for our program through careful tender evaluation. As part of their application, they have presented to ESA a space-related incubation project. ESA and Business Finland fund these projects jointly. The average incubation project duration is 1 year at the end of which a successful company will graduate from ESA BIC Finland as an alumnus. For some of our companies, the space industry represents a new business area, or an opportunity to better serve and address their existing markets utilizing space assets or to find new customer segments.
The New Space logo refers to our companies dealing with “From Earth to Space” projects. These represent business, technological and scientific projects in space. In addition, these companies can have ongoing and evolving business models here on Earth.
Arctic Farming is an AgriTech company solving global food sustainability crises by disrupting how we produce, process and distribute food to the masses.
Their fully automated and easily scalable vertical farming technologies can be used by wholesale, restaurant, and retail industries, as well as by modern urban farmers.
Their innovative technology enables the hyperlocal production of fresh herbs and leafy greens anywhere at any time, significantly reducing global food waste in the process. They joined ESA BIC Finland on 2023.
Website: arcticfarming.fi
Aurora Propulsion Technologies is dedicated to creating scalable solutions and services for small spacecraft movement and lifecycle control.
Its focus is on creating integrated life cycle products to handle all CubeSat propulsion needs, including attitude control, orbital maneuvering, and controlled deorbiting at end of their mission. The team joined ESA BIC Finland in 2019.
Website: aurorapt.fi
Visit the team on their social media channels: LinkedIn and Twitter.
Awake.AI is a collaborative and open data platform company that facilitates ecosystem creation for smart ports and evolving autonomous shipping.
The underlying objective of the Awake platform is increasing operational efficiencies and creating new digital services for all actors in the port ecosystem, from port service providers to infrastructure utilization to shipping customers and cargo owners. Towards this end, Awake is developing predictive analytics and models for key processes in harbor operations. To facilitate the involvement of new digital service providers for smart ports, the Awake platform is a multi-sided network for many participants to develop smart port cargo flows and a future marketplace for selling and buying smart port & ship-related services. The team joined ESA BIC Finland company in 2019.
Website: awake.ai
AddComposites joined ESA Business Incubation Centre Finland in the Summer of 2018. AddComposites is the world’s first plug-n-play solution for Advanced Composites Manufacturing enabling approx. 3 times faster turnaround, 15 times more cost efficiency, and 80% lower labor costs.
AddComposites team has roots in the Indian Space Research Organization and has graduated from Aalto University with which the manufacturing process was developed and patented to address the needs of SMEs. The now granted patent belongs to AddComposites.
Website: addcomposites.com
Collective Crunch is the leader in AI for the forestry industry. It was the first company to be selected into the ESA BIC Finland program.
Collective Crunch collects climate, geo, and technical data and crunches this information for deeper insights. Its predictions of forest inventories are far more accurate than conventional systems and benefit its international customers.
Website: collectivecrunch.com
ElFys joined the ESA Business Incubation Centre Finland in Autumn 2018. The company is manufacturing extremely sensitive light and radiation sensors.
With patented Black Silicon Photodiode technology, Elfys achieves up to 200% improvement in UV and 30-50% in x-ray detection and imaging.
In the ESA BIC Finland, ElFys aims to develop its involvement in space applications and pursue a deep market penetration of high-performance radiation detection for both space and terrestrial applications.
Website: www.elfys.fi
Visit the company on their Linkedin.
iLu Space uses advanced machine learning, AI and satellite data to reduce the impact of climate change. They joined ESA BIC Finland in 2023.
Geospatial data intelligence, for business workflows.
From travel to economics and real estate to the environment, use our geospatial datasets in any way you can imagine: smart cities, agricultural prediction, infrastructure monitoring, renewable energy, natural disasters, and urban green.
Website: iluspace.com
Kitsat joined ESA BIC Finland incubation program in March 2019. Kitsat is an educational satellite concept based on the popular CubeSat format, used by hundreds of universities. It is the core of the New Space movement that is changing the whole way of going to space, using space technology, and transforming also our daily lives.
Kitsat can be used as an introduction to space technology, with uses ranging from high school level STEAM curriculum to professional entry-level training. Kitsat provides a platform for realistic satellite operation simulations and is a full package for inspirational sci-tech teaching. Together with its portable ground segment unit, control software, and the educational framework, it can be used in science parks, colleges, universities, organizations, and companies interested to expand to space tech.
Arctic Astronautics Ltd. is the company behind Kitsat and its development. Kitsat was awarded as the educational innovation of the year 2018 in Beijing, China, by the Finnish Quality Association.
Website: https://www.kitsat.fi/
Visit their social media channel: Twitter and Instagram
Tikitin joined the ESA BIC Finland incubation program in November 2018. The mission of Tikitin is to disrupt the 3-billion-€ timing circuit market with its MEMS resonator products.
TIKITIN OY WAS ACQUIRED BY KYOCERA IN JULY 2019 and changed its name to Kyocera Tikitin Oy.
Tikitin MEMS resonator platform can be used to realize frequency references across a wide spectrum of applications ranging from frequency references for mobile phones to oven-controlled reference oscillators for harsh environments such as space. The advantages of frequency reference based on Tikitin MEMS resonators are small size, low power consumption, and excellent thermal stability. Tikitin BEAT resonator platform is available for partner products. Tikitin BEAT combines almost 20 years of research into a solution that is for the first time enables MEMS resonators to be replacements for quartz crystals. This disruptive solution has already been verified with a number of different driving circuits with great results.
Website: https://www.kyocera-tikitin.com/
Cloud Asset joined the ESA BIC Finland incubation program in Autumn 2018. RAMP is a unique digital command & control platform that helps our customers Digitise national scale use cases for Climate Change preparedness, mitigation & management.
RAMP utilizes SpaceData, IoT Data & AI for Real-Time Operations & Decision Support.
Website: http://rampcommand.com/
Solar Foods, an ESA BIC Finland incubatee between November 2018-November 2019, is almost literally making protein foods out of thin air: they are unlocking natural protein from mother nature by producing an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich single-cell protein using CO2 and electricity.
The electricity can come from e.g. solar panels. This will revolutionize food production as Solar Foods’ production is not dependent on agriculture, the weather, or climate. The protein production is cost-competitive and can scale. The key material, CO2, can be captured from the air – combined with solar PV the food production can take place even in the desert, arctic, or in space. In March 2018 Solar Foods secured two million euros in investor funding from venture investors and Business Finland.
At ESA BIC Finland, Solar Foods was tackling the specific challenges of food production in space and on Mars-like conditions.
Website: solarfoods.fi
Terramonitor (Satellio) joined the ESA BIC Finland incubation program in Summer 2018. Terramonitor is the world’s smartest Space Data map and analyzing tool of the globe.
Its mission is to enable access to Space Data for all businesses. Please follow them on Twitter @terramonitor for crisp and cloud-free space images of the globe and sign up for free at their website at www.terramonitor.co.
Read more about Terramonitor in an article at Spaceoneers: http://spaceoneers.io/2018/10/24/terramonitor/
Zero Gravity Oy is an ESA BIC Finland company since 2019. Zero Gravity Oy is building UrbanAI, a next-generation software heavily based on satellite imagery data for smart cities, mobility, and automotive with a team with roots in R&D, software development, data science, and AI.
Cities can become a tremendous source of innovation and of solutions against climate change. The mission of Zero Gravity Oy is to foster this innovation using satellite data technologies to help cities to reach long-term sustainable development goals, become more eco-friendly, and bring them actionable insights to help in decision making. Their aim is to bring innovation in the mobility sector using satellite data technologies and to unveil the potential of new earth observation data sources and the technologies that stand behind them to enhance the possibilities of smart mobility.
Website: https://www.zerogravity.fi
Feel free to contact and learn more, or if you want to learn how to use earth observation data in your business: olga.bodet@zerogravity.fi or follow the team on their Linkedin.
Arctic Positioning Systems is developing the smallest self-charging GPS tracker in the world. The tracker and software solutions are designed for specific commercial- and research use-cases, in which small size, lightweight, solar-powered energy systems, and non-existent network maintenance are valued requirements.
Examples of our work include tracking cargo drones, studying the movement of bird species, tracking logistics flows, and much more.
Previously, the members of the team have developed hardware and software which run satellite systems, initiated commercial partnerships with the largest tech brands in the world, and launched other entrepreneurial ventures. We joined ESA BIC in summer 2020.
Website: arcticpositioning.com
Fibrobotics is a startup team from Tampere and joined ESA BIC Finland in Summer 2020.
Fibrobotics is developing state-of-the-art testing instrumentation for materials. They will develop the instrumentation and services even further to enable micro-scale testing. Fibrobotics can deliver testing instrumentation and testing services for single fibers and filaments.
With the Fibrobotics measurement unit, a single filament scale is enough to produce a high amount of automated micro bond tests. A filament can hold dozens of droplets.
Website: fibrobotics.com
Skyfora, formerly known as Hurricane Unwinder, provides the world’s first computer vision-based forecast for tropical cyclones and a light IoT measurement device that floats around with the storms’ natural winds.
Skyfora disrupts weather forecasting and measurement technology with artificial intelligence and ultralight electronics. Skyfora joined ESA BIC Finland in December 2020.
For more information, please contact Svante Henriksson, svante.henriksson@skyfora.com. Tel: +358 504087900
Website: skyfora.com
Missing-Link is a startup team from Tampere and joined ESA BIC Finland in Summer 2020.
Missing Link is developing a patented system to make wireless data transmission more reliable and is able to identify and locate wireless interference sources. During their incubation period, Missing-Link will add the possibility to validate satellite positioning information and detect faults. They will develop solutions that will work on the frequencies used by the most popular global positioning systems used by different satellite communications links.
Website: missing-link.fi
Netradar is a mobile analytics company that stems from years of academic research at Aalto University.
Loss of positioning can lead to significant costs for many industries. GNSS is sensitive to interference, which can be caused by in-band emissions, near-band emissions, harmonics, or malicious jamming (personal negligence or even governmental attacks). Gaining knowledge of this interference is critical. Netradar Space – Interference Detector – will provide a solution for this emerging need. Netradar joined the ESA BIC Finland incubation program in Autumn 2019.
Website: www.netradar.com
NinjaLABO specializes in shrinking large AI models through its TinyML as-a-Service especially for space satellite Edge AI applications.
They focus on optimizing neural networks for small, low-power devices, crucial in space where size and power are limited. This enables advanced on-board data processing in satellites, enhancing decision-making and mission efficiency in space.
NinjaLABO’s innovations in TinyML position it at the forefront of Edge AI for space technology.
Website: ninjalabo.ai
Kuva Space, formerly known as Reaktor Space Lab, is developing a space-based hyperspectral imaging and analytics service for agriculture. The company’s solution is based on a constellation of nanosatellites equipped with beyond state-of-the-art hyperspectral imagers.
Reaktor Space Lab’s roots are based on developing and utilizing nanosatellite technology for new space-based services. The very first demonstration satellite Reaktor Hello World was based on knowledge about Aalto-1 and Aalto-2 IP, licensed for the use of RSL for two years. Now, after the end of the Hello World project, RSL has re-developed all of the software and hardware solutions in-house, therefore owning IP for future missions and services. Kuva Space joined ESA BIC Finland in Summer 2020.
Website: Kuvaspace.com
BroadBit is a technology company developing revolutionary new batteries using novel sodium-based chemistries to power the future green economy.
The team has already made high-performance lab samples and is now commercializing the technology for next-generation electric vehicles, portable electronics, starters, and grid energy storage. The batteries are based on metallic sodium and other widely available and plentiful compounds. Our active materials include sodium chloride (NaCl), which is also known as table salt. BroadBit is also developing high power and a low-cost battery capable of fully recharging in 5 mins. Broadbit batteries joined ESA BIC Finland n 2021.
Website: broadbit.com
Winse Power solves technically critical challenges by delivering energy and data with light.
Their optical power link technology delivers energy reliably to places that are hard to power up using conventional solutions.
The core of Winse Power technology relies on their own semiconductor chip technology engineered and built in Tampere Finland. Their technology can be used as is replacement for conventional wires or it can be seamlessly integrated into our customers’ applications.
They joined ESA BIC Finland on January 2024.
Website: winsepower.com
Yield Systems is a Research to Business team originating from Aalto University. They have joined ESA BIC Finland in the Summer of 2020.
Yield Systems is an AI company with a science background developing machine vision and learning solutions for the agri-food value chain.
Yield Systems plan is to integrate the company’s current high-resolution crop machine vision system with satellite data to provide value to farmers and to establish a data business. During their incubation period, Yield System would merge the high-value crop production data asset created by integrating satellite data with Yield Systems’ proprietary, high-resolution crop data production technology.
Website: yieldsystems.tech
Fleetonomy.ai develops a remote operation platform for automated aerial and ground vehicle fleets used in complex urban environments.
The team works with cities, operators, industry partners, and authorities to develop a remote operation platform for autonomous aerial and ground vehicles that is safe, reliable, robust yet easy, and intuitive enough for humans to operate. ‘Fleet Management Application’ software platform is a device and vehicle independent fleet management system. It enables cooperation between fleet operators, autonomous vehicles, sensors, and decision-making systems in urban and other complex environments. They want to keep people in the loop to remotely help automated vehicles and vehicle fleets. Remote operation enables commercial-scale vehicle autonomy and helps achieve the full potential of the current technology. Fleetonomy joined ESA BIC Finland in December 2021.
Avoin Map algorithms present environmental data in a simple and approachable form.
Avoin Map will use Copernicus Sentinel-2 and NASA Landsat data to show global forest cover change from the last 40 years directly on their map. Then, using algorithms to estimate forest inventory, carbon, and biodiversity stock, they simulate future scenarios under the baseline condition and show the user how to ensure more sustainable management. Avoin Map joined ESA BIC Finland in 2021.
Website: map.avoin.org
