Celebrating 100 Companies Accelerated
CASSINI Business Accelerator
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January 19, 2026
With applications now open for the CASSINI Business Accelerator’s next cohort, we take a moment to celebrate the achievements of our Batch 1-5 alumni that extend well beyond their six-month acceleration journey.
Over the course of the first five batches, a total of 100 startups have participated in and successfully graduated from the programme. Across these cohorts, companies consistently highlighted tailored mentorship, expert guidance, and a strong network as the most valuable elements of the CASSINI Business Accelerator. Participants emphasised how the programme helped them refine their go-to-market and long-term growth strategies, sharpen customer engagement, and accelerate their transition from technology development to market traction. The combination of personalised support, practical insights, and a collaborative community enabled startups to gain confidence, identify new opportunities, and take concrete strategic and operational actions that strengthened their business foundations and market readiness. The foundation gained during the biggest space startup accelerator in Europe allowed the teams to continue their growth and bring their companies to new heights. Check out some of our alumni highlights below:
The Spanish startup, Arkadia Space (Batch 3), has successfully tested its first hydrogen peroxide thruster in orbit. The test is a milestone both for the team and for the development of so-called “green” propulsion systems that use non-toxic propellants as an alternative to hydrazine. Additionally, Europe will no longer be solely reliant on foreign suppliers for orbital propulsion, marking this as a strategic breakthrough for the industry.
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Astrolight (Batch 2), a Lithuanian space and defence tech company, has closed a seed round at €2.8M led by tech investor Balnord. This funding, backed by European investors, will support Astrolight’s mission to create an end-to-end laser communication system connecting satellites, ground stations, and future space networks. Additionally, the team completed POLARIS naval tests with the Lithuanian Navy, exceeding project requirements by 2 times.
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ATMOS Space Cargo (Batch 5) has conducted the first orbital test flight of its innovative PHOENIX 1 re-entry capsule to and back from Low Earth Orbit. This flight establishes ATMOS as the fastest-moving private space logistics company in Europe to conduct an orbital return mission. It also demonstrates that sovereign return capabilities are within reach, and that private industry is ready to lead in building Europe’s independent space infrastructure.
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EnduroSat (Batch 2) announced the closure of a €43M investment round led by Founders Fund. This significant funding round also included participation from CEECAT Capital, Morphosis Capital and other returning investors, highlighting the strong confidence in EnduroSat’s vision and capabilities. The substantial investment will be directed towards scaling the production of EnduroSat’s new ESPA-class satellites.
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IENAI SPACE (Batch 1) released v2.0 of its 360 Space Mobility and Mission Analysis software, which includes new features such as: high-fidelity flight dynamics and spacecraft subsystems modeling, operations planning and propagation, optimisation tools built-in, and an intuitive UI that lowers the barrier for engineers, analysts and system designers. Last year, IENAI SPACE also integrated its first complete ATHENA thruster, which marks the first in-orbit demonstration of the team’s scalable, modular thruster technology.
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Involve Space (Batch 5), the Italian company for stratospheric balloon technology applicable to real time Earth monitoring, telecommunications and infrastructure, closed a €2.5M seed round after 30 successful commercial launches and extensive testing. With the closing of this round, Involve is welcoming Alastair Westgarth, former CEO of Google’s Project Loon, to its executive Board of Directors, and renowned astronaut Paolo Nespoli to its Advisory Board.
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ION-X (Batch 4) has successfully performed the first-ever in-orbit firing of a European-developed ionic liquid electrospray thruster. This milestone marks only the second global demonstration of this advanced propulsion technology in space, a decade after the inaugural mission by BUSEK for the LISA-PATHFINDER mission in 2015.
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ORUS (Batch 5) closed its €5M first equity funding round. This strategic milestone will allow the team to launch their first satellite, HYP4U-1, the demonstrator for their HYP4Uses constellation - a breakthrough Earth Observation service combining native high resolution with high quality, designed to address key challenges in environment, security, agriculture, and the energy transition.
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Skynopy (Batch 5) secured €15M in seed funding to accelerate the expansion of its ground station network, and attempt to meet growing demand for data downlink services. This investment supports the startup’s ambition to deploy a global network of high-throughput ground stations (S, X and Ka bands), enabling real-time satellite data downlink services - particularly for Earth Observation constellations.
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In 2025, UNIVITY (Batch 5) reached a major milestone with the signature of a €31M contract with the French space agency, CNES, supporting the development of its next-generation non-terrestrial network architecture. That same year, UNIVITY successfully launched #uniSpark, the team’s first in-orbit demonstrator. This mission is central to validating end-to-end 5G performance from Very Low Earth Orbit and preparing the technological foundations of a future constellation.
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What's next?
The continued success of Batches 1 to 5 is a testament to what can be achieved with a clear vision, guidance, and collaboration. These 100 teams exemplify the power of targeted mentorship, knowledge sharing and industry collaboration in driving innovation and growth across Europe’s spacetech.
As they continue their journey, we can’t wait to see how they turn today’s progress into new breakthroughs. Congratulations, our CASSINI Business Accelerator alumni, we are proud of you!
