Space incubator has €600,000 for 12 Portuguese startups

The European Space Agency’s incubator centre run by the Pedro Nunes Institute has invited applications to a programme for data/technology startups linked to space industry technology.

The programme expects to support up to 12 Portuguese startups per year, with each receiving €50,000 and access to business advice and technical backup.
The ESA BIC Portugal has this year increased its incubator network from three to 15 in Portugal to support companies working with space technology which have Earth-based applications in areas that range from health to energy and transport and which want to enter the commercial space market.
The network currently comprises: Pedro Nunes Institute Incubator (Coimbra); NONAGON, TERINOV and Incuba+ (São Miguel, Santa Maria and the Island of Terceira – Azores); PACT (Évora); PARKUrbis and UBImedical (Covilhã); SANJOTEC (São João da Madeira); Startup Braga; Startup Lisboa; Startup Madeira (Funchal); UA Incubator (Aveiro); UALG TEC START (Faro); UPTEC (Porto) and CEiiA (Matosinhos).
In the last five years alone, ESA BIC Portugal has incubated 30 startups, created 100 or so new jobs and generated around €5 million. Cases in point are Stratio (www.stratio.com), Theia (Tecnology for Cultural Heritage), Tesselo (Tesselo.com) and Undersee (Undersee.io).