NewSpace Nexus, the Albuquerque-based nonprofit aimed at fostering the development of aerospace startups in New Mexico and across the country, recently named the latest group of companies for its flagship "Ignitor" program.
The program, said Casey Anglada DeRaad, NewSpace's CEO, develops companies through three different tiers based on their technology readiness levels. NewSpace's Ignitor has a slew of existing companies in the program, split between the three different tears, which the 12 recently announced companies will join.
Those 12 new companies are:
- Above Space (Huntsville, Alabama)
- Aphelion Aerospace (Littleton, Colorado)
- Berlin Space Technologies GMBH (Berlin-Adlershof, Germany)
- Dash2 Labs (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
- Data Squared USA Inc. (Wilmington, Delaware)
- Desert Works Propulsion LLC (Carrizozo, New Mexico)
- DornerWorks (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
- Hoonify Technologies Inc. (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
- Light Steering Technologies Inc. (Manchester, New Hampshire)
- SCI_ZONE Inc. (Holland, Michigan)
- Space Products and Innovation GMBH (Darmstadt, Germany)
- Spectronn (Holmdel, New Jersey)
Representatives from the 12 companies were in Albuquerque on Dec. 6 for NewSpace Nexus' inaugural Show Space Summit, which included pitches from those 12 new Ignitor companies and a ceremony for 11 companies that "graduated" out of the Ignitor program, DeRaad said. NewSpace helped those and existing Ignitor companies land around $25 million in funding through a blend of government contract dollars and private investment, the nonprofit calculated.
DeRaad said 24 startups were in consideration for the new Ignitor cohort. A network of aerospace experts who work with NewSpace Nexus narrowed the field down to the 12 companies chosen based on criteria that included tech readiness levels, time in business and strength of team members, she added.
Despite not making it into the Ignitor program, DeRaad said NewSpace still provided some resources to the startups not selected, including networking connections and introductions to other incubator and accelerator-type programs.
And, although all of the companies chosen for the new cohort aren't strictly aerospace-related, all are developing space-enabling technologies, DeRaad said. NewSpace's Ignitor program is unique from other incubators or accelerators, she added, which typically have a specific market focus or are run for shorter periods.
"I think our key niche is we're trying to get the suppliers to the money — I say the suppliers to the buyers," DeRaad said. "We're trying to expose them to knowing what government contracts are out there, introducing them to investors or introducing them to other partners."
