Skip to main content
Defence Industry and Space
News article25 January 2022

EU Space: Further cooperation to support space entrepreneurship in Europe

On the 25th of January 2022 in Brussels, and in the context of the CASSINI Initiative, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton signed a joint statement

271941671_627777865004162_6780390762310813044_n.jpg

On the 25th of January 2022 in Brussels, and in the context of the CASSINI Initiative, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton signed a joint statement, together with Vice-President of the European Investment Bank Kris Peeters and Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund Alain Godard, officialising their joint commitment for the “Cassini Seed and Growth Funding Facility”.

The objective of this €1 billion space investment fund is to attract more venture capital funds to become active investors in European small and medium size companies developing space technology and digital services using space data.

In addition to the several hackathons organised throughout 2021, this signing ceremony held on the 25th of January 2021, in presence of the three partners marked the kick-off undertaking of another important section of the CASSINI initiative, devoted to the European space investment capacity.

As a reminder, the CASSINI initiative intends to regroup under a single umbrella relevant support measures for start-ups and SMEs in the space sector and beyond, across the entire entrepreneurial cycle. To this extent, the CASSINI initiative is composed of:

  • Hackathons and mentoring
  • Seed and Growth Funding Facility
  • Matchmakings
  • Business Accelerator
  • myEUspace Competition
  • Prizes

On top of this commitment to boost space investments, another joint statement was made by DG DEFIS Director-General Timo Pesonen, ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund Alain Godard and the Executive Director of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, gathered at Egmont Palace in Brussels on the occasion of the 14th edition of the European Space Conference 2022.

These successive statements defined the principles of cooperation between the represented institutions and organisations in the area of support SMEs in the space sector, fostering on exchange of information and engaging in joint cross-functional actions towards space entrepreneurship.

 

Access Commissioner Breton speech here 

More information on Cassini here

 

Details

Publication date
25 January 2022