Our portfolio company Accion Systems has largely turned into the top Boston based startup in the space space (pun intended) over the last couple of years. Their ion based propulsion technology, which is the size of a nickel and was developed at Paulo Lozano’s Lab at the Space Propulsion Laboratory at MIT, enables small satellites to orbit the earth for years at a time. Its founder and CEO, Natalya Bailey, was recently profiled in Bloomberg Businessweek with an article and brief video discussing their technology and its significance to the market. It is highly informative and I have included the link below. TECHU is a repeat investor and we (as well as many others) are very excited about their future.
Ion Engine Startup Wants to Change the Economics of Earth Orbit
There’s a sweet spot about 22,000 miles above the planet. Only in this narrow band of space can an object achieve geosynchronous orbit, moving at the same speed as Earth’s rotation and staying fixed above one point on the surface. It’s beachfront real estate in the void.
