Originally published on teaduspark.ee
Äritehnoloogia published an article on the current state of Estonia’s space industry, featuring commentary from Sven Lilla, our head of space and ESA BIC Estonia, on a decade’s worth of results and the challenges ahead.
ESA BIC Estonia, the first European Space Agency business incubation center in the Baltics, opened by Tartu Science Park in 2017, is approaching its tenth anniversary. Over that time, the program has admitted 42 Estonian deep tech startups, 29 of which are already alumni. These companies have received a combined 1.9 million euros in seed funding through ESA, which has since attracted over 106 million euros in additional investment. In other words, every euro received through ESA has brought nearly 56 euros in additional funding to Estonia.
The economic impact is tangible: over 310 jobs, more than 17 million euros in wages, and over 56 million euros in revenue.
According to Lilla, Estonia has proven it can get space companies off the ground; the question for the next decade is whether we can help them scale. He notes that the sector itself is shifting; a growing share of applicants are pursuing upstream and NewSpace projects tied to real hardware and infrastructure, which are more capital-intensive and have longer development cycles than what’s typically associated with Estonia’s startup landscape. Lilla sees a risk that regional investors can’t grow their capacity at the same pace as the rising share of hardware companies; otherwise, these startups, along with their know-how and future jobs, may end up seeking their next funding round abroad.
