- the start-ups World from Space and OctoGEO have two years of incubation ahead of them
- Czech Space Week officially began with the annual ESA BIC Prague conference
World from Space and OctoGeo are the first two start-ups to enter the Brno branch of the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre in Prague (ESA BIC Prague). Bother of the firms work with satellite data and over the next two years, they will be able to use know ESA’s know how in this area. CzechInvest officially presented the two firms today at the annual conference of ESA BIC Prague at the DOX Centre of Contemporary Art in Prague’s Holešovice district.
“In order to use space technologies even more extensively in the future, we have to have the involvement of commercial firms that are able to apply the results of space research more rapidly and less expensively. Young firms are a major source of innovative solutions,” says Silvana Jirotková, CEO of CzechInvest, which operates the space incubator.
The start-ups will be given access to facilities at the South Moravian Innovation Centre and incubation includes financial aid in the amount of EUR 50,000 for each start-up. “In addition to financial support, they will be able to use consulting and advisory services in both the technical and business areas and marketing support, as well as assistance with seeking out partners and potential investors,” says Markéta Filipenská of the South Moravian Innovation Centre.
World from Space processes data from Sentinel satellites of the European Copernicus programme. Information on current conditions and changes in the areas of vegetation, infrastructure and economic activities help the firm’s clients as well as cities, regions and farmers to better respond to droughts and to implement preventive measures.
The mapTiler product from OctoGEO is an alternative to Google Maps. It offers maps based on open data and open-source software that can be easily adapted for the user’s own purposes, do not contain advertisements, respect the privacy of end-users and function in closed corporate environments and completely offline.
At the same time, the annual conference of ESA BIC Prague officially launched Czech Space Week, several days packed with events by means of which the Ministry of Transportation and CzechInvest, together with other partners, want to familiarise the expert and general public with space activities and their benefits for science, business and everyday life.
The European Space Agency operates twenty Business Incubation Centres, where young innovative firms develop their projects based on space technologies for use in everyday life. ESA BIC Prague was established in spring 2016 and since then it has helped 13 young Czech firms to commercialise or develop their ideas. The incubator’s Brno branch was established in summer of this year.
Contact to CzechInvest:
Petra Sivová
Spokesperson
+420 296 342 430
petra.sivova@czechinvest.org
Contact to the South Moravian Innovation Centre:
Ivana Malá
Spokesperson
+420 737 549 742
mala@jic.cz