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Two new start-ups enter the Czech ESA BIC space incubator

The start-ups analyse ocean observation data and measure stress

Two new start-ups enter the Czech ESA BIC space incubator Source: ESA BIC Prague, CzechInvest
  • the start-ups Numer8 and Entrant have two years of incubation ahead of them
    • Numer8 in Prague
    • Entrant in Brno
  • the ESA BIC Prague End of Year conference was held in connection with Czech Space Week 2019

Numer8 and Entrant are the next two startups to enter the Czech branches of the ESA BIC incubator. Numer8 will further develop its business in Prague, while Entrant will be at the Brno branch, which is operated by the South Moravian Innovation Agency. Over the next two years, the two companies will be able to use the know-how that the European Space Agency (ESA) has in this area. Today, CzechInvest officially introduced both startups at the annual End of Year conference of the ESA BIC Prague space incubator held at the Prague Planetarium.

With its O’fish application, the Indian company Numer8 wants to prevent overfishing and support smaller fishermen. Based on Earth observation using satellite navigation data, the application is able to determine suitable locations for fishing and, at the same time, conceal them in the application in the event that too many boats appear at the given location. The project is currently being tested in India and Sri Lanka. A start-up with a similar product won the Copernicus Masters competition in London last year and was also selected as one of the top five projects for the UN World Food Programme.

Entrant, which was established as a spin-off of Masaryk University, monitors and interprets stress in fields where assessment of stress levels is of key importance – in the training of astronauts, pilots and soldiers. In the future, the company would also like to focus on doctors and top athletes. The company uses an innovative algorithm that it developed, thanks to which it can effectively evaluate the impact of stress on performance in situations where there are major time constraints and little room for error. No such instrument currently exists. During the company’s incubation at ESA BIC, its team plans to create the first prototype of the device and carry out miniaturisation of the stressmeter.

“Thanks to Numer8 and Entrant, our portfolio of start-ups has expanded with the addition of companies headed by women. This illustrates the fact that female entrepreneurs now have a place in fields that have historically been dominated by men,” says Tereza Kubicová, head of CzechInvest’s Internal Projects Department. “We haven’t forgotten women in the space industry during the Space Week. For example, we organised the Space for Women talk show, which took place on Wednesday, 13 November 2019.”

The ESA BIC Prague space incubator welcomed the new start-ups into its ranks at its annual End of Year conference, which is part of Czech Space Week, an event packed with activities by means of which the Ministry of Transport and CzechInvest, together with other partners, want to familiarise the general and expert public with space activities and their benefit for science, business and even everyday life. During the conference, which was held on Thursday, 14 November 2019, the organisers presented to Karel Dobeš, government representative for cooperation with the European GNSS Agency (GSA), an award for his outstanding contribution to the development of space activities.

The European Space Agency (ESA) operates twenty of its Business Incubation Centres in Europe. In the incubators, innovative start-up companies develop projects based on space technologies for use in everyday life. Since its establishment in spring 2016, ESA BIC Prague has helped seventeen innovative companies to develop and commercialise their ideas. The Brno branch of this Czech space incubator was established in spring last year at the South Moravian Innovation Centre and has hosted four companies since then. After this evening, the number of supported start-ups will have grown to 23 in total.

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