Reflections on the ATI Boeing Accelerator

Thoughts from the ABA team on Cohort Two and the pilot as a whole.

Published in

Aerospace Xelerated

6 min readMay 14, 2021

The ATI Boeing Accelerator was created by the ATI (supported by BEIS), and its industry stakeholders Boeing, GKN Aerospace and Rolls-Royce, as a way of testing the viability of bringing startups together with the UK aerospace industry.

Could the stakeholder group, using startup accelerator programmes as the tool to test the hypothesis, create and engage an ecosystem of startups creating world-class innovation that could be used to help solve some of the UK aerospace industry’s problems? Could that partnership between industry and startups create commercial value, and help scale the startups faster than they would otherwise be able to do so?

Our second ABA cohort was special in many aspects. It was delivered fully virtually during a global pandemic (we’ve still not actually met any of Cohort Two in person!), but it also launched with the ambitious goal to support startups that were creating products that could help make aerospace more sustainable.

After each accelerator programme concludes, the programme team circulates an anonymous feedback form to programme participants. As a part-Government funded programme, we have a range of KPIs we track to measure ROI, but they’re not included below (we’ve always been able to meet them without issue!) — but there are a few success metrics we measure internally:

Can we create real business opportunities for the startups?
Can we create real positive impact in the corporates?
Have the founders benefitted from the curriculum and network?
Have the founders benefitted from the cohort effect?
Are we closer to a more joined up ecosystem?

I’ve summarised some of the interesting feedback we’ve received from Cohort Two, but also some progression we have seen from startups we worked with in Cohort One.

Can we create real business opportunities for the startups?

Across our first two cohorts, we have created 2,263 connections between our startups and both UK and international ecosystem organisations. 486 of those were direct introductions to individuals in big corporates in aerospace or its adjacent industries. Other than our sponsors Boeing and GKN and our partner Rolls-Royce, we introduced our founders to leaders from Chevron, Airbus, Shell, PwC, Northrop Grumman, EasyJet and many more.

But I can already hear you say: “Introductions don’t mean real business opportunities”. I agree, and this is why we are also tracking how many real customers our founders have in the pipeline after their time on an ABA programme.

The founders of the second ATI Boeing Accelerator cohort have, on average, 3.5 new customers in their pipeline after the programme.

While most of those project are still being scoped out (the programme ended less than a month ago!), all of the founders agree that the programme has accelerated access and sales into the aerospace market. You can read about some of the projects the ABA portfolio have been working on on Twitter and LinkedIn.

All of our Cohort Two founders indicated that they will continue to position their products/technology for the aerospace market because of customers and partners developed through the ABA programme.

Can we create real positive impact in the corporates?

The short answer to this is: yes!

Authentise, one of the ABA startups Boeing is working with, reduced build prep time by 95%+ and achieved a 3:1 ROI due to efficiencies. And this is just one of many examples of real-world commercial benefit we’ve seen our industrial stakeholders have achieved by working with our startups. Boeing’s accelerator investment has also leveraged 15X of added industry investment.

All partners could (and did!) benefit from upskilling internal talent by increased exposure to our portfolio of global minds and diverse innovators. The partners were able to create a more strategic tech pipeline that moves at scale with industry allowing aerospace to remain competitive amidst the significantly longer tech roadmaps and lead times for aeroplane development programmes.

Our sponsors have confirmed that this programme has strengthened relationship within industry and UK government. They believe that industrial collaboration will be key in future.

Programme host, the ATI, has also seen real impact:

“The accelerator has changed the way that the ATI considers supporting younger companies and startups. It’s allowed us to see that the needs of startups are often very different to those of more established SMEs or larger companies. It has also allowed the ATI to consider other means of funding technology projects — rather than just through grants. We are considering how best to work with investors and others to support aerospace technology.” — Nour Eid, Innovation Manager

Have the founders benefited from the curriculum and network?

The most common answers to the question “What was the most useful part of the programme for you?” were:

Introductions to partners/sponsors/corporates — extending the network
collaborative opportunities and connecting to other startups
MBA style coaching

It’s hard to get the curriculum right when you have a real mix of startups, and startups from all over the world. Cohort Two had participants from five countries on more timezones than we can remember. But, by digging into what the founders and their businesses needed from the programme, the programme team were able to create a curated 12 week accelerator that was both useful for them while giving them space to run their businesses.

Here are some feedback outtakes:

Have our founders benefitted from the cohort effect?

The cohort effect is such an important part of an accelerator programme. We were unsure how a fully virtual format would impact our founders’ ability to connect with each other, but we were pleasantly surprised! When asked about the benefits of the programme, some of the answers were:

Learning from the other startups
Enjoyed working with the ABA team and meeting the other tech startups. Insights into the industry and technology roadmaps will help plan strategy for future
Having multiple people to visit in UK and other countries when travel opens up
The interaction with other companies, the ability to share problems and solutions and giving and gaining advice.

Almost 60% of our founders considered the fully virtual format an advantage and I can’t wait to see some of the collaborations that are already in the works for this cohort.

Are we closer to a more joined up ecosystem?

During our time working on the ABA, we’ve noticed how fragmented the aerospace ecosystem is. When it comes to safe and productive spaces for early stage companies working in aerospace, there is still a lot of work to be done.

This programme is the start of a building a more connected up community and seeing our founders working together (in and across cohorts) has convinced me that it is possible to do.

Our industry stakeholders have also been able to identify more ways of working together and have appreciated the space the ABA has created to talk and exchange ideas.

We are still at the beginning but we have lots of ideas about how to connect the dots in a more productive way and would love to speak to anyone who would like to be involved!