Involve Space

Involve Space, an Italian aerospace company founded in 2018 by Jonathan Polotto and officially launched as a startup in 2021, specializes in providing stratospheric pseudo-satellite platforms for Earth monitoring, telecommunications, and in-flight testing. The company's genesis traces back to 2016 when Polotto, at just 16, conducted his first experimental stratospheric launch with a €1000 budget. This early passion evolved into a viral marketing stunt involving sending a pizza to the stratosphere, which funded his next venture, Involve Productions, a marketing agency that used stratospheric launches for brand campaigns. Polotto later sold the agency to focus entirely on aerospace, establishing Involve Space.

The company's core offering is the Stratostats® platform, a system utilizing high-altitude, reusable stratospheric balloons to carry scientific and commercial payloads up to 40 kilometers. This platform serves as a cost-effective alternative to traditional satellites for applications such as high-resolution Earth observation, environmental monitoring, disaster detection, and validating aerospace technologies. A key technological component is Neurostar, an AI-driven software that autonomously manages the positioning of individual balloons and will eventually control networks of them, known as LoonHive®. Involve Space manages the entire mission lifecycle, from planning and payload integration to launch, recovery, and data processing for its B2B clientele in civil, industrial, governmental, and defense sectors.

In September 2024, Involve Space secured €2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Earlybird Venture Capital, with participation from CDP Venture Capital, Plug and Play Tech Center, and others. This capital is intended to enhance flight duration, optimize control systems with AI, and expand payload capacity. The company's leadership includes CEO Jonathan Polotto and COO Claudio Piazzai, with an advisory board featuring former astronaut Paolo Nespoli and a board of directors that includes Alastair Westgarth, the former CEO of Google's Project Loon.

Keywords: stratospheric pseudo-satellites, Earth observation, stratospheric balloons, aerospace technology, real-time monitoring, high-altitude platforms, environmental monitoring, satellite testing, telecommunications infrastructure, AI-driven navigation, Neurostar, Stratostats, Jonathan Polotto, Claudio Piazzai, aerospace engineering, payload integration, sustainable aerospace, mission lifecycle services, remote sensing, defense applications, scientific research launches, in-flight validation