Francois Chopard CEO of Starbrust Accelerator
Nextbigfuture has interviewed Francois Chopard, Founder and CEO of Starburst Accelerator. Francois has has over 20 years of experience in strategy consulting, entrepreneurship and business development. Starburst Accelerator is the the first incubator/accelerator dedicated to aerospace start-ups. Francois specializes in the Aviation Aerospace and Defense industries featuring high stakes technology and has developed a wide experience of innovation-related issues.
Francois has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Web Summit, Global Space Congress, Webit Global Series and more. He has also appeared regularly on segments such as Bloomberg West & Bloomberg Technology, CNBC and others.
Francois sees the next industrial revolution will be in space and Starburst is accelerating companies with training and $100,000 and then following up with $500k-$1M funding rounds.
There are 48 companies in 12 countries in the Starburst portfolio of funded companies.
Here is a sample of some of the funded companies and the Israeli Space technology accelerator.
Crypta Labs uses photons for quantum random number generation. The initial patented breakthrough was the idea of using a diffuser to scatter photons, that would then be captured using a camera to harness the entropy. In 2021, a major breakthrough was made with the invention of the discrete QOM. A first of it’s kind solution for the QRNG (Quantum Random Number Generato) world. Crypta Labs made the world’s first space compliant Quantum Random Number Generator for UKRI and the UK Space Agency. The Crypta Labs QRNG devices were tested by the University of Southampton in a thermal vacuum, cycling between temperatures of -50C and +80C, during which the team in Southampton were able to generate high quality random numbers at a bitrate of 40 Mbit/s. The devices were then subjected to vibration tests simulating the launch environment of a Soyuz and Falcon 9 vehicles – all devices successfully completed the tests and came out fully operational.
Ansur of Norway helps reduce video communication bandwidth by up to 99%. Cost and delay challenges are solved with AnsuR software solutions, where up to 99% of bandwidth can be saved when communicating photos and videos, while still providing relevant content in full precision.
FZ Engineering provides superior additive manufacturing solutions. FZ Engineering technologies gives access to an all-new level of performance, which they call premium additive manufacturing. FZ Engineering provides leading edge advanced manufacturing and automated post-processing that enables to efficiently produce 3D printed metal, polymer, composite, or multiple material parts with high geometric accuracy, outstanding surface finish, and superior mechanical properties.
Ravyn makes solid-fuel and cruise missiles, artillery, precision-guided munitions, solid rockets, launchers, fixed-wing UAS, aerial targets, sounding rockets, and related subsystems. Starburst provided initial funding. In 2019, Ravyn secured a venture funding round.
Red 6 is revolutionizing augmented reality (AR) for military training applications. Red 6 brings the Virtual and Constructive assets into the real-world by allowing pilots and ground operators to see synthetic threats in real-time, outdoors and, critically, in high-speed environments. They blend augmented reality and artificial intelligence and using both the indoor AND outdoor space around us as a medium.
Starburst Joint Startup Accelerator in Israel
ASTRA is Starburst newly launched, early-stage start-up accelerator. ASTRA is a partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries, and Shenkar Lab powered by Starburst Aerospace. There are several companies in the accelerator. Terihu, CrystalEn and CSpace.
Tehiru is developing a hybrid, modular, affordable & air-launched rocket system that uses electric landing for re-usability
CrystalEn develops a cutting-edge technology that enables the growth of ‘single crystal diamonds’ for a new generation of materials in the semiconductor industry.
CSpace is creating a satellite-based public planetary observation center comprising of nanosatellite telescopes for public space observation and astrophysics research.
