CONGRATULATIONS TO INNOVA SPACE FOR WINNING THE 21ST NEWSPACE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

On Friday, February 18th, 2022, Innova Space, from Argentina, was declared the winner of the All-Virtual NewSpace Business Plan Competition, and a $5000 grand prize, sponsored by Foundation for the Future.

“Innova space is thrilled to have been the part of the NewSpace Business Plan Competition. It was an enriching experience from the preparation of the application through the pitch competition. We have learned a lot during the coaching sessions and watching other great teams present their projects. Due to the high level of the finalist teams, the judges and the coaches, we feel honored to be the winners; this recognition to our hard work encourages us to keep improving and moving forward to give low-cost solution to IoT communications in remote areas.”, said Elyka Abello, the firm’s Chief Technology Officer.

Innova Space is launching multiple picosats to provide IoT connectivity to remote areas in Latin America, and ultimately the rest of the under-connected world, offering vital data connections to the agricultural and oil industries, among many others. The goal of this is greater efficiencies, leading to greater productivity. 

“As always, it was an incredible experience working with the six Finalists in this competition,” said Thomas Olson, Co-Founder and Chair of the Center for Space Commerce and Finance. “Ultimately, Innova got the nod from the Judges (Eva-Jane Lark, Dennis Stone, and Walt Anderson), as they stood out with their technically well-developed offering, a defined and robust niche market that was not being served, a great technical team, and a compelling recurring revenue model.”

Thanks again to the great people at Foundation for the Future for sponsoring the $5000 prize, and for all their help in making this great event a reality once again!

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So what is next?   First, we are looking to host another Virtual BPC event, tentatively for this coming July.

But a lot of effort is also now being directed at the first live-stage NewSpace Business Plan Competition, late September, as part of the 2022 International Astronautical Congress in Paris. 

This will be the first live event we have hosted since 2019, so we’re pulling out all the stops to make sure it’s a great one, especially as it’s our first effort outside the United States.  To that end we are forming new alliances with some outstanding organizations in the UK and EU, to pull this all together, including a 2-day Bootcamp for the Finalists.  

In this regard, a lot of changes to the CSCF.space website are underway, and you can expect more announcements very soon.  Stay tuned!

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CSCF Chair Thomas Olson will be attending Satellite 2022 in Washington, DC, March 21-24.  He will be taking meetings during the conference for both Center business and his company, Avealto Ltd.  If you are attending the conference, or live in the DC area, feel free to stop by the conference center and say hello!  You can reach him at info@cscf.space, or via his LinkedIn page.