After the success of the first edition last year, the space business network welcomed the investor event targeting entrepreneurs and startups from across Europe on 7 October. The Space Investor Event 2025 took place during NL Space Week and was once again organised by KplusV, NL Space Campus and SBIC Noordwijk. The event brought together ambitious companies in the space domain with leading investors. The aim is to accelerate innovation in the space sector by creating direct connections between companies seeking capital and relevant investors. The event was also an opportunity to announce the launch of a new Space Investor Community.
The scene was set at the start of the event with a keynote from Philip Thomas, head of the ScaleUp Programme Division at ESA’s Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness Directorate. He emphasised the importance of supporting entrepreneurship and commercialising space tech and driving investment into scaling up Europe’s space industry.
Space startups meet investors
One of the participants at the event last year – SBIC technical partner Space4Good – also took to the stage for an interview with the matched investor Arches Capital, offering insights into the process. Next, the startups for the current event took to the stage.
The format of the Space Investor Event 2025 saw the selected companies pitching to the representatives of a number of investors in the audience at SBIC Noordwijk. For tech startups active in the development of innovative software and/or hardware, the initiative sees them being matched with leading investors to help then on the path to attaining that goal. Out of the numerous applications received, six ventures were selected to pitch their innovative business solutions.
The startups pitching on-stage included four that had taken part in the ESA BIC Noordwijk programme (alumni Arceon and Avy; and current incubatees Gravity Gardens and RegenRate) and one alumnus from ESA BIC Czech Republic. Each of the startups were matched with various investors and had plenty of chances to continue the discussions during the CometLab official opening, which took place straight after the investor event just a stone’s throw away. After the event, Paulino Valdes (CEO of ESA BIC incubatee Gravity Gardens) was enthusiastic about having been matched with and connected to a number of the relevant investors and looked forward to continued discussions.
ESA BIC Noordwijk alumni and incubatees at the event:
Launch of new investor network
At the end of the afternoon, there was an announcement that came as the culmination of discussions highlighting the interest for continued collaboration between the financial stakeholders and investment professionals: the launch of a Space Investor Community – a network where investors actively engage, share knowledge and collaborate to drive innovation in the sector. The plans are to hold exclusive investor-only events and continue with the annual Space Investor Event as a platform for selected entrepreneurs to pitch to this network of investors. Read more in the KplusV issued news release here.
