AZO – Your Partner in Competition & Innovation
AZO – Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen is an international networking and branding company for the European space programms, with main focus on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as assisting clients with innovation advisory, management & business consulting and market development.
These services, with focus on the space up- and downstream domains, include strategy and technology consulting, communication activities, and interdisciplinary project management for public institutions and industry in the space and space applications domain.
The main areas of activity include space (Earth observation, satellite navigation & communications, space exploration), security & defence, transportation & aviation, mobile & mobility, and energy.
In the last 15 years, AZO has established the leading European space innovation network for the satellite downstream market, while providing the necessary marketing and promotion platform, incubation and expert network, as well as regional funding programmes with the objective to increase the uptake of new businesses.
AZO organises it’s “Innovation Masters Series”, the most important space-related innovation competitions: Galileo Masters, Copernicus Masters, INNOspace Masters, as well as the other projects in close cooperation with the European Commission (EC), European Space Agency (ESA), European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology Germany (BMWi), German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Space Agency at DLR, as well as a number of major industrial partners such as Airbus, OHB, Planet, BayWa, Merck, DHL, SAP, T-Systems, CGI and many others.
Additionally, AZO manages the ESA Business Incubation Centres (BICs) Bavaria and Northern Germany. This incubation programme has supported to date more than 190 company foundations in Germany. AZO further engages in crowd-investing and venture capital and provides business coaching for start-ups and SMEs.
AZO Facts & Figures
- AZO’s global space innovation networks: >17,000 participants (entrepreneurs & inventors), > 30 million EUR prize pool, 48 European Partner regions, over 700 industrial & public stakeholders
- Entrepreneurship: 192 company foundations in Bavaria and Northern Germany, 3,100 jobs created, 160 million EUR revenue in 2020 and a total of 810 million EUR Venture Capital (2004-2021)
- Venture Capital: AZO runs a very successful business angel network which invested more than 442 million EUR Venture Capital in 2020