Aurora Avionics are a Scottish space start-up, developing next-generation, modular avionics for launch providers. Avionics are electronic systems that act as the ‘nervous system’ of a rocket, enabling navigation, communication, monitoring and diagnostics. Avionics operate by being connected to all the sensors in a rocket, including temperature, pressure, strain, and acceleration, and sending signals from these sensors into a central computer to create a single-source-of-truth.
Traditionally, launch providers develop their own avionics systems, a process that can be time and capital-intensive. In developing plug-and-play, modular, ITAR-free avionics systems, Aurora solves this challenge for launch providers, thus helping to lower costs and accelerate launch timelines.
Challenge:
Founded in 2023, Aurora Avionics faced several challenges as a growing space start-up: developing their product, attracting funding, establishing market credibility, and developing their commercial strategy.
Solution:
Following a successful application to the ESA BIC UK and joining the programme at the Higgs Centre for Innovation in Edinburgh, Aurora Avionics were able to capitalise on several benefits of the programme to address these challenges.
Receiving non-equity grant funding, coupled with the convenient co-location of laboratory and office space at the Higgs Centre, facilitated accelerated product development. The Higgs Centre is also home to a world-leading environmental test suite, including vibration and vacuum bakeout, which uniquely enabled Aurora to build, test, and qualify their hardware in real time, all on the same site.
Another key element of the ESA BIC UK programme is hands-on business development support and advice. Being based at the Higgs Centre during their incubation journey allowed Aurora to soundboard ideas with the in-house team, particularly the Business Incubation Manager, helping them to refine their commercial strategy.
Benefit:
This setup enabled Aurora to attract venture capital funding early, securing £320,000 pre-seed investment from Gabriel Investment Syndicate and Scottish Enterprise less than a year after incorporation. This was followed by their first commercial order from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in late 2024, and, most recently, securing a milestone £525,000 contract with Barcelona-based Pangea Propulsion to supply avionics for their aerospike engine.
Aurora also expanded their team from two to ten people during their incubation journey, capitalising on the talent capture zone Edinburgh as a location has to offer, including talent from local universities and industries.
“It has been an incredible experience being incubated via ESA BIC UK at the Higgs Centre. Having our cleanroom laboratories and test facilities only a one-minute walk from our offices is a dream for any space-tech company, and has seriously accelerated the development of our initial prototypes.
Without the ESA BIC UK, we would have needed to fund our own labs and test equipment; it would have been a large distraction for us. Having the equipment and skilled technicians on-site to support us has made a huge difference.
The facilities helped us convince our first customers that we are serious about building reliable products; leading companies in our sector don’t even have these capabilities. They are very jealous!” – Oren Smith-Carpenter, CEO, Aurora Avionics.
