The Disrupt Space Summit Successfully Kickstarts the Commercial Space Sector in Europe

Bremen, April 13, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​The first Disrupt Space summit was held on the 7th and 8th of April. Over the course of two days, 200 top entrepreneurs and decision makers from across the world came to Bremen, Germany to solve global industry and sustainability challenges using space proposed by select international organizations and participated in high-level workshops and panel discussions. The event received overwhelming positive feedback and considerable media attention including an international evening news segment on CCTV-America.

The summit saw participants travelling to Bremen from 19 countries including many parts of Europe, USA, Canada, Singapore, Australia and Kuwait. 15 teams of international and interdisciplinary entrepreneurs spent two days solving six industry and sustainability challenges presented by the United Nations World Food Program, Made in Space, the European Space Agency, Airbus Defence and Space and Local Motors. Each organization chose a winning team. These winning teams also received a 3000€ stipend from the City of Bremen to travel to Silicon Valley in the United States this summer as part of an official delegation of space cluster leaders headed by Martin Günthner, the Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour, and Ports.

The Disrupt Space summit brought together a large number of amazing entrepreneurs from around Europe and the world who are intent on reinventing the space industry. The environment of collaboration and the connections to supporters within the existing industry will provide a great launch pad for a number of high quality startups.

Daniel Faber, CEO of Deep Space Industries

Winning teams include:

• ESPACIO who proposes an Earth observation and data analytics platform to support farmers in rural area with location based real-time information.

• Starshine who aims to create an exclusive brand that manufactures unique luxury products in space using in-orbit 3D-printers.

• Luna Horizon who aims to use in-situ manufactured solar panels on the surface of the moon to power satellites around Earth’s orbit.

• Space Mining Access who aims to be the first delivery service in space by providing mining companies an all-round carefree package with the goal to keep transportation costs low and let customers focus on their core business.

• Overview VR whose mission is to provide high resolution, fully immersive virtual reality experience to 1 billion people on Earth from within rocket cockpits, the International Space Station and free-floating satellite platforms.

• Building Blocks for a Better Life who will provide low-tech modular-based communication devices linked to either ground stations or satellites, providing internet connectivity to remote communities using co-creation techniques.

The winning teams will collaborate with the organizations providing the challenges and Disrupt Space the coming months in order to realize these startup concepts.

Ahmed Mahmoud, participant at the Disrupt Space summit and team member of ESPACIO says:

The Disrupt Space summit brought together innovators, entrepreneurs and investors from many parts of the world to connect, provide feedback and build a network that is turning dreams into businesses. I admired the energy and focus that entrepreneurs had during the summit towards solving seemingly impossible challenges.

The summit also saw the attendance of 20 existing space startups that competed against each other by convincing close to 80 attending decision makers to vote for them. The five finalists pitched to a panel of investors on the second day with the winning startup receiving a 6000€ stipend for the delegation trip to Silicon Valley. The five finalists include:

• Blue Dot Solutions, a Polish startup that is creating services and products based on Earth Observation, Global Navigation Satellite Systems and ground sensor data for emergency response management and quality of life.

• Deep Space Industries, an American asteroid mining startup that aims to provide technical resources, capabilities and system integration required to prospect for, harvest, process, manufacture and market in-space resources. 

• T-Minus Engineering, a Dutch startup that designs, builds and launches sounding rockets.

• Ripple Aerospace, a Norwegian launch services startup specializing in sea launched spacecraft for a scalable and flexible launch system.

• Vali a Bremen based software startup which enables engineers to collaboratively build better and cheaper satellites.

After considerable deliberation, the panel of judges chose Deep Space Industries as the winner among the five finalists.

Daniel Faber, CEO of Deep Space Industries and winner of the pitching competition at the Disrupt Space summit says:

The Disrupt Space summit brought together a large number of amazing entrepreneurs from around Europe and the world who are intent on reinventing the space industry. The environment of collaboration and the connections to supporters within the existing industry will provide a great launch pad for a number of high quality startups.

The summit attracted widespread global attention with over 2500 people across the world watching the livestream feed and with social media activities reaching more than 2.5 million unique users. The summit has been featured both in local newspapers and in international media.

The Disrupt Space summit was supported by the City of Bremen, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Space Agency, Airbus Defence and Space, OHB SE, Partake, Design & Data, istream, Harwell Campus and HE-Space.

About the Disrupt Space summit

The Disrupt Space summit was a unique event designed to connect aspiring entrepreneurs and startups with decision makers to collaboratively solve today's industry and sustainability problems using space. The event began on Thursday morning with highlight panels and speeches. In the afternoon the work started: aspiring entrepreneurs broke off to work on industry and sustainability challenges submitted by select organizations and startups mingled with decision makers to show off their products or services. Workshops designed for non-space decision makers will be held to provide an overview of current opportunities and challenges in the commercial space sector. On Friday startups pitched to decision makers followed by final presentations by aspiring entrepreneurs to the full audience. The summit is centered around action, innovation, and education. Whether you are already working in the commercial space sector or have never heard of it, the Disrupt Space summit is the perfect environment for you to get a more thorough understanding of the potential of commercial space.

CONTACTS

Magni Johannsson
Co-founder, Disrupt Space
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel:  +49 176 81 589 303

Source: Disrupt Space