Portuguese space firms target Italy in AICEP mission

More than a dozen Portuguese space companies, including Tekever and Critical Software, travelled to Rome this week on a business mission organised by AICEP, Portugal’s trade and investment agency, to seek partnerships and contracts in Italy’s space sector, a market worth more than €3 billion.

Carlos Nunes Pinto, AICEP’s director in Italy and economic and commercial counsellor at Portugal’s embassy in Rome, said the aim was to connect Portuguese companies with local operators and the Italian Space Agency so they can join supply chains, take part in joint projects and compete for available funding. According to figures shared by Italy’s aerospace, defence and security industry federation AIAD, the country’s space sector includes more than 300 companies, around 80% of them SMEs and startups, and supports more than 9,000 jobs.

During the two-day visit, the delegation included Active Space Technologies, Amorim Cork Solutions, Atlar Innovation, CEiiA, Critical Software, Tekever, NeO, Geosat, Infinite Foundry, Meo, Optimal Space and Vesam. The group visited Telespazio’s Fucino space centre, described in the mission as the world’s largest satellite telecommunications teleport, and later met the Italian Space Agency.

The companies arrived with different levels of exposure to Italy. Tekever already works with Italian industry in space and wants to expand, especially in radar, according to Pedro Rodrigues, the company’s space director. Vesam said it used the trip to turn earlier contacts into concrete opportunities in hardware and launch support structures, while Évora-based Entangled said it was seeking Italian partners for its Transportable Agnostic Quantum Station project being developed under the European Space Agency’s ARTES programme.

Originally published at Eco.pt