Author: Scanway
Publication date:
Scanway S.A., a Wrocław-based technology company operating in the field of vision solutions and supplying its products both on Earth (Scanway Industry) and in space (Scanway Space), is celebrating its eighth anniversary this year at a new headquarters that is larger and better suited to the Company’s growth. In 2023 alone, the Scanway team grew by 24 employees and now consists of 60 experts. Plans for further team expansion and the need to increase production capacity in response to growing demand for the company’s products in both business sectors necessitated a move to a new complex where office space has increased from 230 m² to 600 m², and the laboratory and workshop area grew from 98 m² to 382 m². This enables the company to undertake a greater number of projects, including small-scale mass production. Scanway leases its space at West Forum in Wrocław.
Last year was a landmark year for Scanway, primarily due to its listing on the NewConnect market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the great success of its initial public offering (IPO), through which the Company raised PLN 9.0 million gross for its continued rapid growth.
– The past year at Scanway can be described as a watershed moment, not only because the company joined the ranks of entities listed on the Polish stock exchange, but also from a technological and business perspective, in both the space and industrial sectors. The addition of 24 experts to our team, the growing demand for the Company’s products, and the increasing number of projects in which we are involved—including research and development projects—made it necessary to expand our office, technical, and laboratory facilities. Consequently, at the turn of the year, we relocated our operations to a new headquarters. Currently, the team occupies 600 m² of office space—nearly three times as much as before—but, most importantly, our laboratory and workshop facilities have nearly quadrupled in size. This includes both approximately 110 m² of space dedicated to the integration of optical instruments and a workshop area devoted, among other things, to testing vision systems. This will enable us to undertake a wider range of projects, including large-scale production, which potential customers are increasingly expecting “—comments Jędrzej Kowalewski, President of the Management Board of Scanway S.A.”
In the space sector product line, the most significant event of last year was the achievement of flight heritage for the Company’s optical instruments following the launch of its own STAR VIBE demonstration mission. This confirmed the Scanway team’s high level of expertise in designing optical instruments and resulted in the best low-orbit images ever obtained by Polish research instruments, with a resolution of approximately 25 meters (including panoramas of Poland). Work has also begun on expanding the capabilities of the telescopes to include additional data analysis based on machine learning, which led to the signing of a cooperation agreement with AICRAFT, an Australian company specializing in data processing.
Last year, the Scanway team launched four new projects involving optical instruments for satellites, and in early 2024 delivered a tested instrument ready for integration with Creotech Instruments’ HyperSat platform —the largest Earth-observation telescope developed in Poland, which is part of the EagleEye project. Designing and manufacturing larger and more complex optical instruments is part of Scanway’s long-term product vision focused on supplying payloads for increasingly larger satellites, such as, among others, the EagleEye microsatellite weighing approximately 60 kg and a demonstration satellite weighing approximately 100 kg, designed jointly with the German company Marble Imaging.
– The new facility has been largely tailored to our expectations and the specific requirements of operating in the space industry, which will not only increase our production capacity but also streamline our processes related to the design, testing, and construction of advanced electronics. The increased space also allows for greater flexibility in managing multiple projects simultaneously, and the number of such projects continues to grow. In December 2023, we entered into a partnership with the German company Marble Imaging, which is developing Earth observation services that will soon be powered by its own constellation of VHR (very high resolution) constellation, for which we will develop a multispectral payload. We are starting with a demonstration satellite weighing approximately 100 kg, but the constellation is ultimately expected to consist of up to 200 such satellites. In January of this year, we announced an agreement with the South Korean company Nara Space Technology; here, the potential constellation could consist of at least 6–12 satellites, for which we will develop an advanced observation payload. We aim to make the most of this new space and continuously expand our product portfolio. – says Mikołaj Podgórski, COO and co-founder of Scanway S.A.
In our product line for the industrial sector—which is based on data analysis through advanced image processing and the creation of modular vision systems—the past year was marked by the development of technology and its implementation in a variety of industrial projects. In 2023, 15 such projects were completed, covering the automotive, printing, packaging, furniture, food, and medical industries. The past year was a time of development for the modular system, which will enable faster implementation of vision solutions in both industry and scientific institutions in the future.
Scanway’s vision systems are created by selecting the right hardware from leading brands and proprietary software that utilizes advanced artificial intelligence and neural network algorithms. The vision solutions we offer utilize hyperspectral, 2D, and 3D imaging technologies. Scanway Industry has also introduced a new product to its lineup—a smart camera designed for applications such as presence verification, barcode reading, and part counting.