---
title: "European Earth Observation Start-ups Survey – Key Findings"
id: 30650
type: "post"
slug: "european-earth-observation-start-ups-survey-key-findings"
author: "NSE"
published: "2023-03-15T06:30:00+00:00"
modified: "2023-04-25T01:16:23+00:00"
canonical: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/03/15/european-earth-observation-start-ups-survey-key-findings/"
markdown_url: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/03/15/european-earth-observation-start-ups-survey-key-findings.md"
description: "What is working and what is not working…"
language: "en-US"
category:
  - "Earth"
  - "Earth Observation Market"
  - "Industry Reports, Papers And E-books"
  - "Space Economy"
  - "Space Technology"
  - "Spacecraft Systems: Space Segment"
post_tag:
  - "Agriculture"
  - "Business"
  - "Business Models"
  - "Government"
  - "Insurance"
  - "Maritime"
  - "Materials"
  - "Raw Materials"
  - "Startups"
---

# European Earth Observation Start-ups Survey – Key Findings

![](https://i0.wp.com/newspaceeconomy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/img_0001.jpg?resize=696%2C392&ssl=1)

*Source: [ESA](https://earsc.org/sebs/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SEBS-Start-up-Survey-2021_FINAL.pdf)*

The Start-up Survey 2021 presents the results of the 2021 start-up survey for companies in the European EO services sector, to which 43 startups from 16 countries responded. Start-ups formed since 2015 were included in the survey. This article summarizes the key findings from the survey.

## Start-up Company Characteristics

The respondent companies had the following characteristics:

- 74% had less than 10 employees,
- 60% were initially funded by R&D projects or grants,
- 45% are technologically market-ready,
- 25% reported having no customers,
- 42% reported being unprofitable, 42% reported being profitable and 15% declined to answer, and
- 50% had 2019 revenues between 0 and €50,000.

## Business Models

Value-added EO products and services were the most popular primary service (60%); Within this, most companies offer a per-use fee basis, although subscription, freemium and bespoke business models are also in use.

## Market Segments

Agriculture, Environment, and Urban were the top market segments (42%); Full list of market segments:

1. Agriculture (16.31%)
2. Environment, pollution and climate (14.18%)
3. Urban development (12.06%)
4. Insurance and other services (9.22%)
5. Infrastructure (9.22%)
6. Forestry (8.51%)
7. Renewable energy (7.09%)
8. Citizens and society (5.67%)
9. Maritime (4.96%)
10. Earth observation service providers (4.26%)
11. Oil and gas (3.55%)
12. Security and defense (2.13%)
13. Other (1.42%)
14. Raw materials (1.42%)

## Customers

Breakdown of customers:

1. Industrial (28%)
2. Local/Regional Authorities (25%)
3. Government (18%)
4. NGO (18%)
5. Public (7%)
6. Other (4%)

## Operational Barriers

The top operational barriers were:

1. market and user acceptance (20%)
2. finding new customers (17%), and
3. lack of funding for development (15%).

## Customer Adoption Barriers

Top customer adoption challenges indicate that the market was/is immature. Top barriers are:

1. Lack of awareness of the utility of Earth observation applied to their business processes (25%);
2. Earth observation is only part of the solution, customers are unwilling to invest in a total solution (22%)
3. Aware, but not convinced that Earth observation provides them with a business solution (18%)
4. Solutions seen as too complex (15%)
5. Lack of conviction to switch from from non-Earth observation based solutions (13%)

## Dependency Upon Copernicus Sentinel Data

Respondent companies had a critical dependency upon Copernicus Sentinel data:

- 73% of respondent companies use Copernicus data
- 50% of respondents companies rely on Copernicus data for their business to run, or for competitive advantage.

An overview of the Copernicus sentinel program is [provided in this article](https://newspaceeconomy.ca/?p=30684).

Note that the Copernicus Sentinel data is provided [free of charge](http://www.copernicus.eu/en/how/how-access-data) to the public, and private companies.