Telespazio Ibérica is experiencing a unique moment and has a great capacity for growth ahead in the aerospace sector. The subsidiary, which brings together both Spain and Portugal, aims to close the year with record figures. Its CEO, Carlos Fernández de la Peña, addresses the reality of the sector and explains the turn he has taken in the growth strategy since he arrived at the company two years ago.
What is the position of Telespazio Ibérica today?
We are the leading company in Spain in geoinformation and satellite navigation; for example, in the management of critical infrastructure, emergencies and natural disasters. We are also at the forefront in other sectors such as the design and development of space systems, the management of launch services and control of satellites in orbit. And now we are turning Spain into a benchmark for industry and technology with aeronautical and aerospace vehicles such as drones and pseudosatellites (HAPs and MALE).
What are the main challenges that a large company like Telespazio Ibérica has?
Our objective is to continue gaining weight in the Spanish space sector and reinforce our role as a relevant actor in it. This necessarily involves gaining size and business volume. We are doing it by combining two mentalities that are apparently very different, but in practice they provide the best of each world. The weight, strength and knowledge of a large company; with the agility, speed and innovative capacity of a startup. We are a large company that has adopted the startup mentality to grow and diversify.
How do you plan to achieve those goals?
In addition to this mentality, we are doing it through organic and inorganic growth. In the first, increasing the capacity it has in the European market in the space sector with satellite systems, and in the national market with projects linked to geoinformation and others related to the ministries of Defense and Innovation. And in the second through acquisitions that we have planned of companies in which we are interested and that will strengthen our presence and prominence in the sector.
What reflection will this bet have on the economic close of the year?
We still have the last quarter ahead of us, but given the advanced figures that we are managing and taking into account that there are still several projects that are yet to be closed, I can assure you that it will have a significant impact on the income statement. In fact, we hope to end the year with the goal of multiplying the size of the company by at least three. This strategy is allowing us to consolidate and do so more quickly than before.
How is this strategy being received by the group and the market?
In a very positive way. We perceive it both in the Telespazio Group, which supports our operations, and with private companies, institutions and regional governments with which we work, such as those of Aragon, Catalonia, Galicia or the Canary Islands, in addition to provincial councils and city councils with which we also have projects. under way.
How is it reflected in the growth of the company?
We are closing very interesting projects, we have a very powerful commercial team. Also incorporating talent, we have 150 employees and the important thing is that we have the ability to create geographical capillarity to cover the projects that we are winning: in addition to Madrid and Barcelona, we have recently opened offices in Fuerteventura and Vigo.
What are the main challenges you are encountering?
Attracting and retaining talent is, without a doubt, one of the challenges that technology companies like Telespazio Ibérica are currently encountering. We are in an ecosystem where there is high competition and which demands a high level of training and experience from candidates in the space sector. However, we are overcoming it by adding the attractiveness of a sector like aerospace and our operation as a startup. This is attracting young and dynamic talents with very different profiles, engineers, mathematicians, geographers, and also very complementary ones.
What differentiates Telespazio Ibérica’s offer from other companies to attract talent?
We have projects that very few companies have, such as, at an international level, Moonlight, communication and navigation services on the Moon; or Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. And at the national level we have a pioneering project in the Canary Islands, in the Fuerteventura Technology Park, to fight fires and protect biodiversity with the use of aeronautical and aerospace vehicles such as drones and pseudosatellites; or in Galicia, where we are building the European industry around the use of drones for different functions. And in all of them with very attractive offers with additional benefits, such as training in work hours and centers, hybrid modality, stability and a professional growth plan.
Why does it sound so abstract when talking about Space?
I think that mentality is in the past. Space is seen as something far from the lives of citizens, but it is not. For example, each of us without realizing it uses the services offered by satellites. What we do at Telespazio Ibérica is offer a useful service to citizens without them realizing it. They don’t see us, but we are there in their daily lives, helping them. Every time we open the phone and use the GPS; we use satellite images, which we process with artificial intelligence algorithms to detect asbestos, a carcinogenic construction material widely used in the past; saving lives thanks to the maps we make with images taken by fire satellites and then used by emergency services. They don’t see us, but we are there in their daily lives, helping them. The key to the sector is to provide this useful service, and that is where Telespazio Ibérica is strong.
And how do you grow despite that very strong competition that you mention?
I have said it on other occasions: at Telespazio Ibérica we want to replicate in Spain and Portugal the capacity that the consortium has in other European markets in the space sector to operate and lead satellite systems. In this context, the support of the Telespazio group is crucial. The space companies around the Tedae employer association, of which we are members, employ almost 6,000 people directly and already invoice more than 1,000 million euros annually. We are pulling that car because, in addition, our services are dual, both civil and defense, which gives us enormous growth potential.
At a regional level, where is the Spanish space industry and how can we be leaders in the sector?
The Spanish space industry is at very high levels and in the rankings just below powers such as France, Italy and Germany. Today we compete for fourth place with Belgium, which has grown a lot in recent times. However, I believe that Europe must work together to compete in an area where today the United States and China have the lead and for that a mix of public and private support is necessary, or we are going to fall behind.
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