By Matt Kozlov, Managing Director of Techstars Space Accelerator

There’s never been a more exciting time to be a deep tech entrepreneur, especially if your company has applications in the aerospace industry.  According to Bryce, space tech startups attracted $5.7 billion in financing in 2019, shattering the $3.5 billion record set the previous year.

But building a successful space company is hard. It requires not only access to capital, but also a deep understanding of the key players in commercial, military, and civil space and how to work with them.  

The Techstars Space Accelerator has been helping entrepreneurs successfully navigate these ecosystems since our first class ran in 2019, and we just recently completed our 2020 class (watch their demo day here!).  To date, our graduates have raised over $30M in combined VC and grant funding and closed major contracts and partnerships with the Department of Defense, NASA, ESA, and dozens of major corporations like Maxar, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE and more.  

Today we’re officially accepting applications for our 2021 summer class.  The program, run in partnership with the United States Air Force, NASA’S Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, IAI North America and Arrow Electronics, helps entrepreneurs achieve in just 3 months what would take years to do on their own.

If you’re an entrepreneur building a space tech company, we want to hear from you! Classic “NewSpace” categories we’re interested in include: SmallSats, Geospatial Analytics, Robotics, Avionics, Communications, Earth Observation, In-Space Propulsion, Navigation, Perception, Systems on Chip Computing, Antennas, and Photonics.

We’re also interested in relevant technologies developed for other industries such as automotive, agriculture, mining, energy, and industrial manufacturing. We’re especially excited to invest in companies with novel applications in artificial intelligence.

Examples of broader enabling technologies we’re looking to invest in include: AI, design and collaboration tools, autonomous systems, LIDAR, terrestrial navigation, drones/UAS, advanced manufacturing, edge computing and big data processing, sensors, cybersecurity and power systems (including energy generation, storage, and management).

Applications are now open and will close February 28.

The 2021 program, which starts June 7 and completes on September 2, will take place in a  virtual format with the possibility of some in-person programming if circumstances allow.

If you are interested in meeting with me or our team to learn more, please contact me at matt.kozlov@techstars.com.  We’d love to hear from you and schedule office hours.

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