Unlocking Space for Investment - overview
Updated 24 May 2024
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1. Unlocking Space for Investment
Unlocking Space for Investment is an initiative, backed by the UK Space Agency, that aims to catalyse private sector investment to support the growth of the UK space sector. The Unlocking Space for Investment: Business & Investor Pathway programme seeks to increase private investor awareness and understanding of investment opportunities across the space economy through the delivery of 2 pathways.
Each pathway offers tailored support to successful applicants, including learning content, masterclasses, networking and pitching opportunities. The programme overall seeks to create long-term, meaningful partnerships between the UK Space Agency, investors, and companies.
We ran our pilot programme in 2023/2024, and intend to run a subsequent programme later this year. This page will be updated with further details once reopened. In the meantime you can find more information about the programme below.
2. Investor Pathway overview
The Investor Pathway programme is dedicated to supporting private investors seeking to capitalise on the nascent UK space sector and leverage existing government investment. The programme will encourage investment in the sector by sharing knowledge and empowering investors, particularly those considering their first venture into space investment.
The Investor Pathway will grant investors access to:
- knowledge sharing: a 6-week flexible online course tailored for investors moving into the space sector
- pitch day: invitation to an exclusive pitch day hosted by the UK Space Agency, in coordination with the parallel pathway for space businesses
- community: exclusive access to deal-flow backed by UK Space Agency investment, invitation to industry events and opportunities to form investment partnerships with pathway members and the UK Space Agency
3. Business pathway overview
The Business pathway will offer tailored content and focused interventions to support space sector businesses to get investor ready, helping to bridge the valley of death in reaching the growth stage (Series A+). We will look to:
- demystify the world of institutional investment through an understanding of the different types of investor and what they care about
- give the opportunity to get hands on with commercial and financial investment advisers from early stage through to late stage transactions helping to frame your investment opportunity and addressable market size
- provide appropriate materials, skills and coaching to generate the right investment content to support due diligence and the investor engagement process
- offer experience pitching to investors through Dragons Den style events allowing valuable feedback to be shared to support you along your investment process