Airbus BizLab, the global aerospace business accelerator, giving start-ups the exceptional break to bring their ideas and vision to life conducted the “Airbus BizLab Summit” in Toulouse where thirty start-ups from the three global BizLab accelerators in Toulouse; France, Hamburg; Germany and Bangalore; India pitched their projects in front of an international audience of investors, BizLab partners and top managers from Airbus.
Through the “Summit”, Airbus BizLab performs an important “facilitator” role for the start-ups by easing their access and exchange with the investor community and potential industrial partners as the start-ups present face-to-face their high quality project and eventually seek funding. Also, internal projects are pitched to Airbus management to exhibit their achievements with the chance to profit from a six month post acceleration programme to promote their project forward.
“We are proud to see open innovation moving forward. In just two years, Airbus BizLab has already been in contact with almost 1,000 start-ups from all over the world.” said Bruno Gutierres, head of Airbus BizLab “It is key to identify inventive ideas and new services to meet future challenges and customers’ expectations.”
Airbus BizLab already counts several success stories including: the Jetlite start-up that developed a precise lighting system for reducing jetlag securing a contract from a top airline for their new A350 XWB; the Uwinloc start-up that has raised € 2.3 million to date with its ground-breaking RFID tracking system; internal projects such as the iflyA380.com website, the exceptional booking assistant tool for the iconic A380.
Airbus Bizlab is also introducing its next call for projects featuring two firsts. It will be a combined call for projects between Hamburg and Toulouse, permitting the start-ups to choose the location where they would like to be hosted. Besides, Airbus BizLab will open up a new social dimension for start-ups operating in the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) environment. The next call for projects for the BizLab in Bangalore will be launched later this year.
