PARIS – The rapid growth of European space startups is reflected in Young European Enterprises Syndicate for Space (YEESS), a nonprofit formed in 2021.
In two years, YEESS has grown from six to fifteen corporations with combined employment of greater than 1,000 people, Juan Tomás Hernani, YEESS president and Satlantis co-founder and CEO, told on the World Satellite Business Week conference here.
Member corporations are based in Toulouse, France, Bilbao, Spain, Charleroi, Belgium and “throughout Europe,” Hernani said. Many of the startups have facilities in multiple country.
The entrepreneurs who founded YEESS were frustrated by a scarcity of opportunities.
“We had demonstrated that we could deliver products but we couldn’t access institutional programs since the institutions thought that only the primes were able to providing services or infrastructure,” said Nicolas Capet, Anywaves president and YEESS vice chairman. “Pushing this message as individual entities was not efficient. We decided to work together.”
![](https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rsz_3yeess_founding_members.jpg)
Encouraging Competition
The primary goal for YEESS is competition, Hernani said.
European institutions, which provides the vast majority of contract funding for space programs, traditionally turn to prime contractors for space services and products. Now, they’re learning to work with space startups that strive to be agile and cost-efficient, Hernani said.
Access to capital, launch and electronics is prompting people to determine space corporations everywhere in the world.
“Obviously, we’re global corporations because NewSpace is a world markets. But we wish the possibility to develop these activities in Europe,” Capet said. Maintaining European expertise on this sector is very important given the important thing roles space systems play in global communications, climate change monitoring and offering strategic insights, he added.
Working with Primes
Along with working with European institutions, YEESS seeks to assist prime contractors recognize the benefits of working with startups.
“It’s a possibility for them to get access to higher-risk technologies faster and at a more competitive price,” Capet said. “It accelerates the event of latest space infrastructures.”