Meet the aerospace startups taking off in our first cohort

9 startups changing the landscape of aerospace were selected from 268 applications

Introducing our Selection Committee and startups.

We’re excited to announce the first cohort of companies to join the ATI Boeing Accelerator programme!

With solutions ranging from replicating and optimising a factory on a cloud-based platform, to making the inspection process faster, the teams joining us have all created solutions that will bolster the growth and competitiveness of the UK aerospace industry. The 9 companies from across the UK and the US, have been selected following 268 applications to join our inaugural programme, taking off on January 14th.

Half of the teams to join us have raised £100K-£1M; while 20% have raised £1M-£3M, and 30% are bootstrapped (£0–100K). 20% of our first cohort are female founded, a stat we’re proud of in an industry that sees only 3 per cent of C-Suite roles filled by women.

The teams joining our inaugural cohort are:

• Anomalous — Edinburgh, Scotland (UK): Anomalous provides intelligent inspection software for aerospace, making inspection in aerospace faster and more accurate.
• Authentise — London & Philadelphia (UK & USA): Authentise delivers data-driven process automation software (workflow management engine, platform of manufacturing-related software modules) for additive manufacturing industries.
• Circulor — London, England (UK): Circulor provides traceability in supply chains, tracking the provenance of raw materials to demonstrate responsible sourcing, to track carbon production in the supply chain and identify fraud.
• Gravity Sketch — London, England (UK)]: Gravity Sketch empowers enterprise teams to collaborate and create in three dimensions by building intuitive multi-platform tools to radically improve the efficacy and efficiency of developing 3D products.

Anomalous founder Euan Wielewski pitching during our Selection Day.

• Intellegens — Cambridge, England (UK): Intellegens has a unique deep learning tool that can train deep neural networks from sparse or noisy data typical of experimental data.
• Kraken IM — Middlesbrough, England (UK): Kraken IM helps companies develop strategies to collect and manage their engineering data and makes software that ensures that this information is delivered from their supply chains.
• Perpetual Labs — London, England (UK): Perpetual Labs bring unparalleled efficiency to Engineering Design and Manufacturing via their secure, scalable and highly available Software as a Service product.
• Plyable — Oxford, England (UK): Plyable uses the latest in AI and machine learning technology to create proprietary software that automates the design and manufacture of composite tooling, allowing customers to go from CAD to component automatically.
• Septillion — Dunfermline, Scotland (UK): Septillion provides a secure blockchain-powered provenance platform for authenticating physical assets and verifying the genuine provenance and ownership of products throughout the supply chain and beyond.

We were overwhelmed with the interest from startups in this programme which is a strong indication of how much the aerospace sector is in need of a change. We’re also very happy with the final 9 companies and think we have a very strong cohort on our hands. Not only these are companies who will bring a fresh perspective to a traditional industry, but this group is also diverse, with three female founders.

Our programme was created in partnership by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Boeing, and sponsored by GKN Aerospace. The selected startups emerged following a two-day interview session held in London, where 30 companies were invited to pitch.

Each of the selected startups will receive a £100,000 equity investment from Boeing HorizonX Ventures, as well as first-hand access to ATI, Boeing and GKN Aerospace strategists and technical experts. The programme also provides startups with a list of perks and benefits, from partners like Stripe, Digital Ocean, AWS and more, to help them run and grow their companies. Companies in the cohort will also have the opportunity of paid proof of concepts (POCs) with Boeing and GKN Aerospace.

During the first week of the programme, the founders will meet investors, sponsors, aerospace experts and startup mentors. This will give them the opportunity to start building relationships and challenge any elements of the business that they need to work on during the programme.

Networking during our Selection Day event.

The second week will give them insight into Boeing, including its supply chain, and help prepare for the commercial opportunities ahead. The rest of the programme structure overall is tailored to the founders’ stage, needs and skill gaps with content and introductions to support their businesses and teams over the 12 weeks.

Brian Schettler, Senior Managing Director at Boeing HorizonX Ventures, said: “Boeing is thrilled to be involved in this programme, as we believe the 10 selected startups are bringing new ideas and technologies into our industry. We’re excited to see how the accelerator builds on their existing capabilities and enhances their ability to impact aerospace with their innovation.”

Gary Elliott, CEO at the Aerospace Technology Institute, added: “We created this programme because we are looking for great technology from startups who have a different approach to innovation and will introduce a new way of thinking into aerospace and aviation. We are excited about working with new entrepreneurs with a great level of energy and different ways of approaching innovation.”

Paul Perera, VP Technology at GKN Aerospace, said: “We are really excited about what the startup community — especially around sustainability and industry 4.0 — can bring into aerospace. I believe there’s a lot of innovation in this ecosystem and it will be incredibly rewarding to work with Boeing and ATI to help generate the future leaders of the aerospace industry.”

Demo Day for the cohort will be hosted in April, where the startups will celebrate the end of the programme and pitch their businesses to customers, key industry stakeholders and investors.

The Programme team at our London office, Public Hall.

If you’re a startup founder interested in applying for the next cohort, sign up to our mailing list to stay up to date on when applications for our second cohort (which starts September 2020) open.

We are also always looking to hear from potential partners, investors and stakeholders on how we can create the best programme for aerospace startups in the UK. If you’d like to have a chat, please get in touch!

For more information, please contact the ATI Boeing Accelerator team:

Gabi Matic — gm@atiboeingaccelerator.com | linkedin.com/in/gabrielamatic
Wil Benton — wb@atiboeingaccelerator.com | linkedin.com/in/fatkidonfire
Ksenia Kurileva — kk@atiboeingaccelerator.com | linkedin.com/in/kseniakurileva