To see the future of Aerospace …
Look forward.
After my own startup journey ended, I’ve been working with startups via accelerator and pre-accelerator programmes for the past 3 years. I’ve worked on, designed and delivered 5 accelerators but I have not been as excited about a programme as I am about the ATI Boeing Accelerator in a long time.
We’ve been interviewing founders building startups in aerospace or with applications in aerospace over the last few weeks and there are some very big ideas and some future big businesses in there. What I love about startups in this space — and its related industries — is that they are solving very real and very challenging problems. With the ATI Boeing Accelerator programme, we want to help those founders scale and succeed.
That’s what our accelerator is here to do.
So what is it?
The ATI Boeing Accelerator is a 3 month-long programme based at Public Hall. It is intended to support the growth of world-class startups in the UK’s aerospace ecosystem.
Who is behind it?
The Aerospace Technology Institute has partnered up with Boeing, as the platinum sponsor, and GKN Aerospace as the Gold Sponsor. The programme is designed and delivered by Ignite’s London based team consisting of myself (Programme Director) and Wil Benton (Venture & Ecosystem Director). We are supported by our Associate Ksenia Kurileva and our Venture Partners, Johanna Campion and John Turner.
Day to day, the teams and we are also joined by the ATI’s Rachel Power alongside their technical experts, Boeing Horizon X Venture UK’s Nichola Bates and GKN Aerospace’s Paul Perera.
Who are we looking for?
We’re looking for world-class startups creating industry 4.0 and sustainability enabling technologies with the potential to bolster the growth and competitiveness of the UK aerospace industry. See the graphic to the left for an overview.
We are very happy to have businesses and technologies developed in or for other industries and which could be relevant to the aerospace industry participate in the programme.
What does it offer?
The programme offers a £100k equity investment per startup (structured as an uncapped SAFE with a 20% discount) from Boeing HorizonX Ventures, firsthand access to ATI, Boeing and GKN Aerospace strategists/technical experts, desk space in central London for the duration of the programme and much more.
So the programme has what we see as two big value points.
The first is the access to the ATI and our incredible sponsors; as well as the support we give while facilitating those commercial relationships. Our partners and sponsors are already heavily involved in the selection process now and are gearing up to work with the teams and give them real commercial opportunities. We know that this is where the success of a corporate accelerator is decided — and we know what to do to make ours one of the best programmes out there.
The second is where our investment communities come in: we want to help the startups on each cohort raise funding to grow bigger and quicker, and we want to work with our investment networks to help them find their next big investment.
We know that this is where the success of a corporate accelerator is decided — and we know what to do to make ours one of the best ones out there.
Applications close on the 15th of November (12pm) and interviews will be held at our Selection Day on the 21st of November.
We will open the doors to our first cohort and its 8–15 founding teams on the 14th of January 2020.
Read more about the programme on our website and in the FAQ here.
You can also book in for office hours or contact me directly via e-mail on gm@atiboeingaccelerator.com.
