Altiwave among the winners of the #MyEUspace competition

An Irish team of entrepreneurs won €25,000 at the competition

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An Irish team of entrepreneurs has won €25,000 at a competition held by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).

Altiwave was one of 11 winners of the #MyEUspace competition, which challenged European start-ups to develop prototypes based on satellite data. The team focused on satellite-derived regional wave heights for the marine energy sector, and had to turn their idea into a prototype.

Launched in September 2021 as part of the European Commission’s CASSINI initiative and with over €1 million in prize money on the line, #myEUspace is one of the biggest competitions ever organised by EUSPA.

Innovators and entrepreneurs were challenged to develop and commercialise products/applications that use data and services from the EU Space Programme. While the solutions ranged from diverse sectors such as location-based services, smart mobility, geomatics, and smart agriculture, they all share a foundation in their use of Galileo or Copernicus data as well as leveraging the synergies between the two.

The competition’s results were announced during Entrepreneurship Day, an event organised at EUSPA’s headquarters in Prague. The 43 accelerated start-ups had the chance to give an elevator pitch in front of some of Europe’s top venture capitalists as well as the director-general of DG DEFIS, Timo Pesonen.

In Track 1, the innovators had to develop their theoretical idea into a prototype. The winners were:

• SANGENE: Integrated GNSS based passive radar for detection and first localisation of obstacles
• EO4ART: Web application for artistic and personalised products based on satellite images acquired over a specific region of interest
• ALTIWAVE: Satellite-derived regional wave heights for the marine energy sector
• Master Map: Automatic road mapping status for maintenance optimisation
• VirtualCrop: Application for sustainable precision farming that turns phones into data gathering and analysis tools
• RIGOROUS: Efficient and effective development and deployment of solutions based on using Randomness-Intensive algorithms for near-real-time route optimisation

In Track 2, the innovators had to turn their existing prototype into a product and launch it on the market. The winners were:

“With the CASSINI Initiative, we are supporting innovation and growth to give their chance to the many untapped talents in the European Union,” said Pesonen. “The applications presented today during the Entrepreneurship. Day at EUSPA are solid proof of what can be achieved when we mix entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and EU Space data.”

‘’Space data and services are driving innovation and enabling disruptive technologies in a wide range of sectors,” says EUSPA executive director, Rodrigo da Costa. “Start-ups have been particularly enthusiastic in embracing the potential offered by the EU Space Programme. I would like to congratulate the winners and also the participants for the effort they put.’’

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