Deep Blue Ventures (DBV), the deeptech venture capital fund managed by Deep Ocean Capital, and Primo Ventures through the Primo Space Fund announce a EUR 3.5 million investment in Aiko, a Turin-based scaleup that develops advanced software based on artificial intelligence and automation for space applications. The transaction, which brings Aiko’s total funding to EUR 6.5 million, is part of a total capital increase of EUR 5 million, which is still ongoing and open to new investors, with the aim of accelerating the start-up’s growth and facilitating its international expansion.
The investments of Deep Blue Ventures and Primo Ventures, already an investor in the 2020 round, in which AIKO raised EUR 1.5 million, will support the scaleup’s growth on several fronts: on the one hand by continuing the company’s internationalisation in France and launching its expansion in the US, and on the other hand by accelerating the commercial scalability of the software solutions already on the market. This strategy aims to consolidate Aiko’s presence in the enterprise software market over the next two years.
For Deep Blue Ventures, lead investor in the deal, Aiko represents the fifth investment since its debut in May 2023. The fund, set up to support start-ups, spin-offs and more generally innovation initiatives in the aerospace, healthcare and sustainability sectors, expects to close five more deals by the first half of 2025.
“With this round, we want to position ourselves as a global player capable of serving all the major players in the space industry in both Europe and the US. Our vision is to become the world’s leading supplier of cutting-edge software solutions for space applications based on artificial intelligence, and this deal is a key milestone for us at a crucial time in our growth, which will allow us to scale our solutions and expand overseas. says Lorenzo Feruglio, founder and CEO of Aiko (pictured here with the team), in a note. ‘Our goal is to enable autonomous space missions, where technology can make a difference both in preventing failures and in optimising all the many delicate operations that together enable successful space missions.
Emilia Garito, founder and president of Deep Ocean Capital, adds: ‘Aiko is an outstanding example of Italian innovation in space automation. With this investment, we want to contribute to its global growth and accelerate its impact on space mission automation. As a fund specialised in deeptech, our aim is to support companies that, like Aiko, are building the future of strategic sectors for the European economy and market, but starting from the valorisation of Italian excellence and, therefore, of our industrial ‘made in Italy’.
“Aiko was our first ever investment and having witnessed the team’s ability to develop high-level technological solutions and earn the trust of industry players, we are convinced to further support the team in the next growth phase. The use of artificial intelligence in the space sector still has wide margins for growth, and we believe that Aiko can best meet this market need,” says Matteo Cascinari, general partner of Primo Space.
The new funding will enable Aiko to implement the European development strategy, with the team growing from 40 to 70 people, and to plan the global strategy. The new funds will also be allocated to the growth of the Toulouse office with an expansion of the team and the strengthening of the presence in France. A further objective is expansion into the United States, a global leader in the space economy where Aiko plans to open an office by 2025.
The funds will also be used to scale up ground and on-board software solutions with the ultimate goal of offering partners an integrated platform of solutions capable of automating the entire operational process of a mission. Among the objectives is to further improve the functionality and implement the sale and global deployment of Gifted_Gene, software for predictive maintenance of space missions, and Orbital_Oliver, the on-board operating system enabling autonomous operations for spacecraft.
With this round, Aiko also aims to consolidate its position as an innovator in the international space economy, further consolidating its leadership in cutting-edge thematic areas including data analysis, robotics and advanced space automation. According to the UCS Satellite Database 1 , there are currently 7,560 satellites in orbit around the Earth, and this number is set to increase in the coming years: in fact, Euroconsult 2 predicts that between 2023 and 2032, an average of more than 2,800 satellites will be launched per year (equivalent to 8 satellites per day), with a consequent increase in demand for predictive satellite maintenance solutions. Aiko, which provides state-of-the-art artificial intelligence solutions for flight and ground software, aims to facilitate increasingly autonomous space missions and has now become the leading provider in the European ecosystem of complex, artificial intelligence-based solutions for space. In recent years, AIKO has in fact acquired a significant legacy of funded contracts: 28, between completed and active, projecting the 2025 turnover to over five million euros, and of relationships with institutions and commercial players: its main partners include the national space agency (ASI, Italian Space Agency) and ESA (European Space Agency), satellite operators (EutelSat OneWeb, Tyvak International) and satellite manufacturers, companies in the new space sector and universities (including the Politecnico di Milano). Moreover, since June 2018, Aiko has been part of the Nvidia Inception Program, reserved for companies that have artificial intelligence as their main competence and goal.
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