Via Satellite announced SWISSto12 CEO Emile de Rijk as the 2024 Satellite Executive of the Year and Slingshot Aerospace’s Agatha AI as the 2024 Satellite Technology of the Year at the Via Satellite awards luncheon at SATELLITE 2025. Dr. Femi Ishola of Phemotron Systems won the 2025 Startup Space pitch competition.
De Rijk disrupted satellite manufacturing with the HummingSat small GEO platform, winning orders from Inmarsat and Intelsat — the first small GEO orders from major operators placed with a startup. SWISSto12 grew revenues over 40% in 2024 and completed preliminary design reviews on both HummingSat missions. Accepting the award, de Rijk recalled attending SATELLITE for the first time 10 years ago as a three-person startup: “I remember walking into the exhibit hall with a piece of 3D printed antenna, thinking ‘I know absolutely nobody in this industry.’ 10 years later, here we are building GEO satellites for some of the most prestigious customers in the industry.” He was also a competitor in the inaugural Startup Space competition in 2017: “I want to encourage all the entrepreneurs in this room. One day you can walk in here and be nobody and achieve something meaningful that moves the line for everybody.”
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Slingshot Aerospace CEO Tim Solms accepted the Technology of the Year award for Agatha AI, an SSA system developed with DARPA that uses inverse reinforcement learning to detect satellite anomalies and identify potential bad actors: “Agatha identifies anomalies in constellations to give us a first-mover advantage for either anomalous activity or nefarious activity.”
Startup Space winner Femi Ishola of Phemotron Systems — the first Startup Space winner from Africa — is developing the AI-MotherBox-1 12U cubesat with a high-performance AI engine. Accepting: “Thank you so much for this opportunity. I dedicate this award to the African children with dreams, with hopes. This is a testament that you can do it.” VS
