Le 18/19 d'Hedwige Chevrillon · BFM Business

Grande Interview - Charles Beigbeder, entrepreneur et président d'Audacia – 01/04

·22 min·2 clips

Charles Beigbeder explains why the New Space economy is the new playground for investors, comparing it to the internet's impact.

1. Le 18/19 d'Hedwige Chevrillon presents an interview with Charles Beigbeder, founding president of Audacia, on the economics and strategy of the New Space industry. 2. Beigbeder founded Audacia 19 years ago; the fund manages approximately 400 companies, of which 75 are in deep tech, with specialized funds in quantum, space, and new nuclear. 3. The episode's central argument is that the space industry has entered its third and entrepreneurial age, analogous to the early internet, driven by a thousandfold drop in satellite costs. 4. Beigbeder describes the first space age as the Cold War prestige race, exemplified by Sputnik and Apollo, and the second as the era of large aerospace companies building billion-euro geostationary satellites. 5. The third age is defined by satellites costing around 2 million euros rather than several billion, plus sharply lower launch costs driven by SpaceX, enabling entrepreneurs to participate. 6. Satellite numbers have grown from 4,000 five years ago to 15,000 today, with projections of 60,000 to 100,000 by end of decade. 7. Low orbit at 200–500km — the distance between Paris and Rouen — allows satellites to circle Earth in 90 minutes, eliminating the two-tenths-of-a-second latency inherent in geostationary orbit. 8. This latency elimination enables real-time global connectivity constellations like Starlink, which Beigbeder names as the benchmark the French company he mentions is trying to reach. 9. Low orbit also enables high-resolution optical, radar, and infrared Earth observation, useful for climate monitoring and military intelligence. 10. A Space Traffic Control industry has emerged to track and prevent collisions among the growing population of satellites and debris. 11. Beigbeder names the microgravity industry — manufacturing molecules, metallic alloys, and materials impossible to produce under Earth gravity — as an emerging new field. 12. He co-founded Expansion, the New Space-focused fund, and also participated in founding Cantonation for quantum and Exergon for nuclear fusion start-ups. 13. On military applications, he explains that adversaries can neutralize satellites with directed-energy weapons rather than kinetic missiles, which would pollute the orbit for everyone, requiring military satellite stockpiling and rapid-launch capability. 14. Europe represents 25% of world GDP but only 10% of space investment, a ratio Beigbeder calls a failure to hold rank. 15. He notes ESA's budget rose 30% at its most recent ministerial meeting as a positive signal and says the EU's multi-year financial framework includes a significant space budget increase. 16. He warns that Germany's strategy of licensing American space technologies rather than French ones risks creating US ITAR (export-control) dependencies that would require Washington's approval to export European products. 17. Investment tickets range from 500,000 to 10 million euros, with three to four follow-on rounds, targeting a minimum 10x return per company to achieve a net 3x fund return despite expected failures. 18. The interview is structured as a business news format: crisp biographical framing, market data, competitive analysis, and a forward-looking call to action on European policy. 19. Investors, entrepreneurs, and policy professionals interested in the economics of deep tech, space startups, and European industrial strategy would find the interview substantive. 20. Listeners unfamiliar with private equity terminology or not interested in European space and technology policy may find the middle third of the episode technical.

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