Deep Blue Globe, Dipteron and HOSTmi are among the 15 selected teams that receive access to €100.000 equity-free funding and the PARSEC second stage business support services. In total, 60 consortia consisting of start-ups and SMEs had their businesses evaluated by a jury of experts during the PARSEC Demo days.
The PARSEC Demo Days consisted of two intensive pitching days on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2020. This marked the end of the PARSEC Open Call 2 which aimed to select the 15 best Earth Observation based innovations for the food, energy or environment sectors. After four months of support and networking, the 100 winners of PARSEC’s first Open Call (#100PARSEC) teamed up with their peers and external SMEs in order to apply for the Open Call 2 and scale up their ideas. During the Demo Days they defended their applications in front of a jury consisting of industrial CEOs, investors and business leaders.
Deep Blue Globe (DBG) from the ESA BIC Hessen & Baden-Württemberg had teamed up with Berring Data Collective (BDC), who went through the first round of the Open Call. Their solution POLARIS took the seventh place. POLARIS is a service to support polar fisheries by optimising their operations and polar routes as well as helping to select sustainable polar fishing areas. While in this collaboration BDC functions as provider of In-Situ Polar Ocean Data, DBG has the role of developing polar navigation routes and sustainable polar fishing ground identification. Together they want to increase the fishing vessels productivity by 15% and reduce the environmental impacts.
The team of Deep Blue Globe with the co-founders Pablo Sanchez (in the middle) and Mario Castro de Lera (on the right)
Dipteron was among the 100 selected applicants in the Open Call 1 as well. They built a consortium with HOSTmi. The “ESA BIC team” came eighth with the Space Application for Detecting Aedes Mosquito Risk Areas. "This success means making the difference in our society for taking space technology to combat endemic diseases around the world", says Ana Cristina Galhego Rosa, CEO of Dipteron. The startup focuses on early identification of vulnerable areas, which is crucial to control the advancement of diseases. Dipteron does this by deriving environmental and climatic factors from satellite data, especially Earth Observation data. HOSTmi, with its core strength in platform development and in developing scalable IT solutions is the technical partner of Dipteron. They concentrate on building the Dipteron platform and take care of other important technical aspects in order to provide a novel product to the world.
Shahrokh Khodabakhshi (CEO HOSTmi), Ana Cristina Galhego Rosa (CEO Dipteron), Pouya Hashemi (CEO HOSTmi)
And what will the team do with the funding available of €100k? "The second phase of the PARSEC accelerator is going to allow us to go to the market, be scalable and have the opportunity to receive investments. As a result, we expect to grow faster.", says Galhego Rosa. In other words, the funding shall support the Dipteron software development, marketing and research as well as the Dipteron pilot for the Brazilian city Sao José dos Campos. It has been developed together with its strategic partner in Brazil - Visiona Tecnologia Espacial S.A to run later this year.
Among the PARSEC Demo Days Jury members were Frank M. Salzgeber, Head of Innovation and Ventures (ESA) and Joana Kamenova, Outreach and Business Analyst (ESA).
The 60 consortia evaluated, represented 142 SMEs and start-ups from 32 countries.
Within each winning consortium, the SMEs and start-ups have access to a maximum of € 50.000 in equity-free funding each and will now be able to work with the PARSEC experts for the upcoming year. They will benefit from a set of business support services, such as expert promotion, coaching in attracting further capital, the PARSEC investment readiness program and fit for purpose solutions by the Business Catalysts.
About the PARSEC accelerator
PARSEC is a business accelerator supporting the creation of new Earth Observation-based products and services. The accelerator targets SMEs, start-ups, entrepreneurs and individualswho want to have an impact on the emerging Food, Energy and Environment sectors. The holistic two-stage acceleration programme offers a total of €2.5 Million in equity-free funding alongside coaching, training and market entry support. The second stage PARSEC acceleration programme is planned to run from September 2020 until October 2021. The PARSEC Accelerator is funded by the “Horizon 2020” Research and Innovation programme of the European Union. More information about the PARSEC Accelerator please visit here.