Call for Scottish AI or Autonomy Startups!
The upcoming Aerospace Xelerated programme is investing into startups building autonomous and AI solutions for aerospace — and it’s a particularly great opportunity for founders in Scotland.
As an entrepreneur who cofounded a business in Scotland, I know how amazing the ecosystem is and what brilliant support structures the country offers. The Aerospace Xelerated programme (formerly known as the ATI Boeing Accelerator) is grateful for being able to continue benefitting from the Boeing Scotland Alliance for its upcoming cohort. The programme has also recently partnered with the Ministry of Defence, through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).
The programme will be investing into startups building autonomous and AI solutions that advance the way aircraft are built, from the factory floor all the way to the passenger journey. Startups from different industries are encouraged to apply via the programme website as long as they can demonstrate a use case for aerospace.
Startups accepted on the programme will benefit from an optional £100,000 equity investment from Boeing. The deal is even better for Scottish startups, as they get the opportunity of matched funding from Scottish Enterprise!
The Boeing programme team is also running in-person office hours for any interested founders on the 5th and 7th of October in Glasgow.
Anne Roberts, CEO of Aiber, one of programme’s portfolio startups, seized that opportunity and shared her experience with me,
“The Boeing programme enabled our company to continue to innovate during the pandemic, helping us enormously to achieve our growth ambitions. A key measure of programme success for us was air worthiness testing of the product. The Boeing team, and their partners are supporting that process.
“This programme is a robust opportunity for early stage businesses to immerse themselves into an industry specific support mechanism, one that builds networks, creates new business relationships and ultimately helps to optimise growth ambition.
“Our alliance and investment from Boeing and Scottish Enterprise enables us to be well placed to capitalise on air travel as the market bounces back.”
In a press release earlier this year Linda Hanna, CEO of Scottish Enterprise and co-chair of the Boeing Scotland Alliance, said,
“We’ve supported MIME (trading as Aiber) in many ways to help achieve its growth ambitions, and it’s fantastic to see this latest development unfold as a result of our Boeing Scotland Alliance.
“By deepening our strategic partnership with one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, we want to unlock new jobs and increased opportunities for Scottish SMEs, and that’s exactly what this investment in MIME is doing.”
All programme startups get access to strategists and technical experts from industry and support in developing Proof of Concept opportunities. They will also be introduced to a network of angels, venture capitalists and the wider aerospace industry, throughout the 12-week programme and wider ecosystem events.
Another Scottish portfolio business is Zeleno. Richard Scott, Operations Director, spoke to me about why they decided to register a company in Scotland:
“We set up our business Zeleno (which focuses on the production of negative emission syn-fuels) in Scotland. The work toward energy transition in Scotland is extensive and we felt that our business could be a real part of this move toward sustainability.
Furthermore, Boeing has a large presence in Scotland and several of the projects we are researching would be based there.”
Rich and the wider HiiROC/ Zeleno team also shared the benefits they took away from the programme with me,
“We found the accelerator extremely useful. The programme was very well put together with sessions covering many aspects of starting up and building business. The access to the corporate partners was unlike other accelerator programmes we have been on. We were able to discuss our business with all the mentors on the programme, and got access to virtually anyone we needed within the corporate partner businesses. The engagement from Boeing was exceptional, and we have formed a really strong working relationship with the Boeing team.”
Euan Wielewski, co-founder of Edinburgh-based Filament (Cohort 1) also remembers his time during the accelerator fondly:
Being part of the Aerospace Xelerated programme has been a great experience for Filament. We’ve had the chance to learn about the specific needs of aerospace customers and how best to navigate sales and procurement in aerospace. We’ve also been connected to key people across the global aerospace sector, which has given us a fantastic network of customers, advisors and investors.
The Scottish aerospace startup scene is particularly exciting right now, with companies like Clyde Space, R3-IoT and Alba Orbital all showing significant growth over the last few years. If you are a Scottish startup working in autonomy and AI, joining the Aerospace Xelerated accelerator programme will open up doors to the aerospace sector that would otherwise be nearly impossible to access.”
For the upcoming 2022 cohort, Aerospace Xelerated is looking for startups across the following areas: assured autonomy; autonomous navigation; generative design; smart maintenance; adaptive learning; reduced workload and Aerospace AI Applications.
Companies must be late seed-stage, software-focused, and working with AI or autonomous technology.
Learn more about the Aerospace Xelerated program in our FAQ or watch the recap of our recent Ask Us Anything webinar. Register for free tickets for our upcoming ‘Demystifying Artificial Intelligence’ event here. You can also book an Office Hours call or an in person meeting in Glasgow to chat to the programme team and apply to join the programme on our website.
Applications close on the 8th of October at 12pm BST.
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