EY, in collaboration with BNP Paribas Fortis and L’Echo, announced Aerospacelab to be the Scale-up of the year (Scale-Up de l’Année). The prize is awarded to young companies based in Brussels or Wallonia, which are in full development with great potential with regards to innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategy. Minister of Economy Willy Borsus, vice-president of Wallonia, presented the trophy to Benoît Deper, the founder of Aerospacelab.

Benoît Deper, Aerospacelab’s CEO and founder, accepted the award and stated : “This year has been paramount in the development of Aerospacelab. We have worked so hard to commission our first satellite manufacturing plant and open subsidiaries in France and Switzerland, while simultaneously preparing several satellites for launch next year. It’s great to see the support for our plans by EY after this eventful year, we are ready to launch 2023 with a blast!”

Pierre De Muelenaere, president ad interim of this year’s jury, stressed that : “Aerospacelab is not typical of the French-speaking economic space. This is a very ambitious project that not only aims to develop and market new-generation satellites, but also to sell data and information.”

Sophie Lefèvre, executive director at EY : “The jury for the 2022 ‘Scale-up de l’Année’ admired the vision, skills and teamwork involved in this complex project. Aerospacelab has a difficult task to accomplish, but it also has major potential to succeed both locally and internationally. Aerospacelab’s solutions improve the efficiency of all relevant industries by making geospatial intelligence both operable and affordable.”

Aerospacelab’s innovation lays in its cost-efficient satellite solutions thanks to its payload agnostic approach, short lead time, and the use of off-the-shelf components. With its Versatile Satellite Platform (VSP) a wide spectrum of payloads customized to clients’ requirements can be hosted. These satellites have capacities in Earth observation, for example to monitor natural disasters and related damage assessments, changes in land cover, detection of pollution and gas emissions; over telecommunication with inter-satellite link, IoT, broadband internet; to various technology demonstrations.

At its first satellite factory in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve, Aerospacelab has the capacity to design, manufacture, integrate and test 24 platforms a year. In Europe’s first satellite megafactory, operational in Charleroi from 2025, it will be able to produce up to 500 platforms a year.