Thirty start-ups – from the three global BizLab accelerators in Toulouse, Hamburg and Bangalore – have pitched their projects at the “Airbus BizLab Summit” in Toulouse in front of an international audience of investors, BizLab partners and top managers from Airbus. Airbus BizLab, the global aerospace business accelerator, gives start-ups the unique opportunity to bring their ideas and vision to life.
In parallel Airbus Bizlab is also launching its next call for projects featuring two firsts. It will be a joint call for projects between Hamburg and Toulouse, allowing the start-ups to select the location where they would like to be hosted. In addition, Airbus BizLab will open up a new social dimension by welcoming applications from start-ups operating in the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) environment. The next call for projects for the BizLab in Bangalore will be launched later this year.
Through the “Summit”, Airbus BizLab performs an important “facilitator” role for the start-ups by easing their access and exchange with the investor community and potential industrial partners as the start-ups present face-to-face their high quality project and eventually seek funding. Also, internal projects are pitched to Airbus management to showcase their successful achievements with the opportunity to benefit from a six month post acceleration programme to bring their project forward.
“We are proud to see open innovation moving forward. In just two years, Airbus BizLab has already been in contact with almost 1,000 start-ups from all over the world.” said Bruno Gutierres, Head of Airbus BizLab “It is key to identify inventive ideas and new services to meet future challenges and customers’ expectations.”
Airbus BizLab already counts several success stories including: the Jetlite start-up that developed a specific lighting system for reducing jetlag and secured a contract from a leading airline for their new A350 XWB; the Uwinloc start-up that has raised € 2.3 million to date with its innovative RFID tracking system; internal projects such as the iflyA380.com website, the unique booking assistant tool for the iconic A380.
Airbus creates new commercial drone services start-up “Airbus Aerial”
Airbus launched its U.S. base and operations of a new commercial drone start-up, named Airbus Aerial, at the AUVSI Xponential tradeshow and conference in Dallas.
With bases both in the U.S. and in Europe, Airbus Aerial’s initial business will focus on developing new imagery services. These services will leverage the best software and aerospace technology from across the globe to offer actionable data and analysis of information provided by drones, satellites, high altitude aircraft and other sources.
“Through Airbus Aerial, we are uniquely positioned and fully committed to advancing the commercial Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) industry. It is bringing together partners from across the industry – ranging from vehicle manufacturers, data analytics companies, service providers and others – to enable data-focused services at large scale,” said Dirk Hoke, Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Defence and Space. “Using an integrated combination of assets, from UAS platforms to satellite imagery, Airbus Aerial is rolling out a wide range of new imagery services. In the future, additional pillars of the Airbus Aerial activities will be in the area of cargo drone services as well as providing connectivity via aerial assets.”
The U.S.-based part of Airbus Aerial will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and is led by Jesse Kallman, a UAS industry expert with more than 12 years of experience including research at Georgia Tech, federal policy at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), commercial UAS at Airware, and advocacy with groups like AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International). Kallman has served as a trusted adviser to executives at Fortune 500 companies, members of Congress, senior officials at the FAA and White House, and leading Silicon Valley Venture Capital groups.
“Drones are only a piece of a much larger picture for us,” said Kallman. “Airbus Aerial brings together a variety of aerospace technologies – including drones and satellites – combines them in a common software infrastructure, and applies industry-specific analytics to deliver tailored solutions to our customers’ biggest challenges.”
Airbus Aerial imagery services targets a range of applications for commercial industries, such as insurance, agriculture, oil and gas, and utilities, as well as state and local governments.
Recruitment for positions in software development, data analytics and drone operations, among other roles, has begun. Airbus Aerial is also looking for new partnerships to help bring these new services to market.