Is CASSINI a grant programme?

Mostly no — CASSINI is an umbrella: hackathons and prizes (cash awards), a business accelerator, investor matchmaking, and an investment facility channelling growth capital. It complements, rather than replaces, grant instruments like Horizon Europe or ESA programmes.

Who can join CASSINI matchmaking?

EU-based space startups and scale-ups looking for investors or industrial partners, and investors looking at the EU space sector. Events run around major European space and tech conferences.

What is CASSINI?

CASSINI is the European Commission's space entrepreneurship initiative, launched to strengthen the EU NewSpace ecosystem. It bundles hackathons and prizes, a business accelerator, investor matchmaking, and an investment facility supporting growth-stage space companies — the commercial-capital complement to the EU's grant instruments.

The pieces

Hackathons & prizes — fast, small cash awards and visibility for early teams.
Business accelerator — coaching cohorts for space startups.
Matchmaking — curated introductions between startups, investors and primes at major industry events.
Investment facility — growth capital channelled through European fund structures.

For founders, CASSINI works best alongside non-dilutive funding: win credibility in a hackathon or accelerator cohort, use matchmaking to meet lead investors, and finance R&D through ESA or Horizon Europe instruments in parallel.

Official source: EU Defence Industry and Space — CASSINI.

Written by Tymofiy Badikov, founder of VIRA.space (Virtual Innovation Research Assistant) — operated by Space Tech Gateway Sp. z o.o., Kraków Technology Park. VIRA tracks live European space funding calls and checks your eligibility free: see live tenders.