Case Studies
Frontier Space: From University Spinout to Space Pioneer
Frontier Space was born at Cranfield University, where a team of scientists and engineers set out to transform how biotechnology research and manufacturing could be done — not on Earth, but in orbit.
Their flagship product, SpaceLab, is a scalable, modular, autonomous lab-in-a-box — designed to support in-orbit manufacturing of high-value bioproducts and host biopharma R&D. SpaceLab facilitates biological, pharmaceutical, and chemical research in the unique conditions of space microgravity.
Frontier Space marked a major milestone with the successful launch of its SpaceLab Mark 1 demonstrator aboard SpaceX’s Bandwagon-3 mission, a breakthrough that positioned the spinout among the first UK companies to deliver biotech research into orbit. The achievement signalled not just technical capability, but the arrival of a new player with global ambitions in the rapidly emerging in-space manufacturing sector.
Navigating Research Commercialisation
Cofounder and CEO Aqeel Shamsul put it simply:
“I am a trained engineer turned first-time founder/CEO and B2B sales are HARD, especially for a tech founder. It is both art and science at the same time.”
The team faced the common hurdles of a science-led startup:
- Limited resources and time to dedicate to commercial activity.
- No proven sales funnel or lead generation process.
- A steep learning curve in engaging customers in highly specialised markets.
As Business Analyst Malaviga Senthil Prabu explained:
“Due to constraints in resources like budget, time and lack of knowledge and experience in sales, we are not able to deepen the sales funnel, especially because it’s in the pharma industry.”
It was this combination of technical excellence and commercial inexperience that led Frontier Space to join Grand Scale’s flagship strategic commercialisation programme, Kickstart.
Kickstarting Market Growth
Frontier Space entered the Grand Scale Kickstart programme with a clear understanding of where their technical expertise needed to be matched with commercial capability — and how the lack of it was slowing progress.
The team recognised that their limited sales and marketing experience was:
- Impeding sales and revenue generation.
- Delaying product and service launches.
- Constraining their ability to scale operations.
- Hindering investment acquisition.
Their priorities included:
- Client acquisition and sales pipeline development – Building a robust pipeline in the biopharma sector, strengthening a newly established business development function, and mastering industry-specific sales techniques.
- Marketing for customer acquisition and brand awareness – Strengthening brand presence, raising awareness of SpaceLab’s unique value proposition, and improving marketing capabilities to support both customer acquisition and funding efforts.
- Securing seed funding – Strengthening their financial position to support MVP delivery, enhance product offerings, and convert early interest from biopharma companies into Letters of Intent to further validate their business model and attract additional investment.
These priorities aligned directly with the purpose of Grand Scale Kickstart — a strategic entrepreneurial education programme designed to address the commercialisation gap faced by technical founding teams emerging from academic research, by equipping them with the sales, marketing, and business development skills necessary to launch, grow, and secure investment.
As Aqeel explained, working directly with Grand Scale co-founders and Kickstart deliverers Ro and Leanne made the experience highly practical and relevant:
“Marketing and sales can be daunting, especially for a tech startup or tech entrepreneur. We have tried various strategies but struggled to generate sales traction and brand awareness. We also attended short courses, but most are very generic and top-level. Ro and Leanne shared their expertise into an implementable framework and actionable plan for a resource-constrained startup. It's evident that they are incredibly experienced in this area and genuinely passionate about this programme to make it accessible to startups.”
Taking Action
Through Kickstart, Frontier Space transformed their approach to sales and marketing from ad hoc experimentation to a structured, data-driven process. The programme provided a clear roadmap for building and sustaining a sales pipeline, backed by practical tools that could be adapted to their unique constraints as a space-biotech startup.
Aqeel reflected:
“The key difference in the programme is a clear roadmap to supercharge our sales pipeline, sustainable sales and marketing funnel for continuous sales flow. We loved it because it helped us to build data-driven sales and marketing funnels to help our decision making.”
Business & Communications Manager Anjali Sanjay added:
“We have strategised our sales approach and now things seem to be much more structured and streamlined.”
The programme also gave the founding team the confidence and insight to take ownership of commercial decisions.
“Without the programme, as a technical team, it’s very hard to have a complete oversight of the process. Being part of the programme builds a foundation for sales & marketing and insight into what works and what doesn’t work which enables us to justify the actions that we take.”
Impact Beyond the Programme
As the programme concluded, Frontier Space was preparing for a major milestone — their first space mission. The timing meant they could immediately apply the new sales and marketing framework to maximise the commercial impact of that achievement.
The Grand Scale Kickstart programme helped us to build data-driven marketing and sales funnels to provide actionable insight to shorten sales cycles. It was timely because we had our first space mission at the end of the programme. We are using what we have learned from this programme to springboard from our first space mission to support our sales series, launch our product and close our investment round.
Aqeel Shamsul, Co-founder & CEO, Frontier Space
That momentum quickly translated into tangible outcomes. In July 2025, Frontier Space secured a £75,000 working capital loan from Sprk Capital, in partnership with the British Business Bank’s Fintech Programme, providing vital resources to support its next stage of growth.
Just two months later, in September 2025, the company secured a £366,000 International Bilateral Fund (IBF) project, working with the Exploration Company GmbH, a tier-one US pharmaceutical partner and a leading academic principal investigator whose space studies pioneered the commercial case for space-based biomanufacturing — the same body of research that enabled Varda Space to raise $187 million.
In January 2026, Frontier Space successfully executed a second orbital mission, this time in partnership with Azenta Life Sciences, further de-risking its spacelab platform and demonstrating repeatable, mission-ready capability.
To support its expanding commercial and research activity, Frontier Space is also growing its footprint within the Cambridge life sciences ecosystem, opening a new presence at Babraham Research Campus in February 2026. This places the company at the heart of one of the world’s leading biopharma clusters.
With these foundations in place, Frontier Space is now raising a £400,000 pre-seed round to scale its bioreactor technology, expand customer pilots, and accelerate its path to market.
Reflecting on their journey so far, Aqeel’s advice to other founders is clear: “Join Kickstart if you are a tech company serious about early growth, commercial readiness, and building visibility at the right moment.”
Delivering Innovation to the World
Frontier Space’ journey through Kickstart demonstrates the impact of pairing technical innovation with commercial capability. By refining their sales approach, strengthening their marketing strategy, and embedding a repeatable, data-driven process, the company is now ready to grow the impact of its innovations — from microgravity experiments to global biotech applications.
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