Twenty-one million to get startups dealing with aerospace and advanced technologies to take off from Turin. This is Takeoff’s bet, the acceleration program born in the Ogrs which will be part of the National Accelerators Cdp Network (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), the network present throughout Italy to help the growth of young companies specialized in high-potential markets. Takeoff, therefore, is a joint initiative of Cdp Venture Capital investors through the Accelerators Fund, the Crt Foundation through the Development and Growth operating arm and UniCredit. The project also involves Plug and Play Tech Center, as co-investor and operational manager of the acceleration program, and Ogr Torino, in the role of innovation & networking partner.
The Unione Industriali Torino is an institutional partner, the Leonardo Group corporate partner, which will make its distinctive industrial skills and technologies available to startups, acquired in the aerospace and advanced manufacturing sector, during all phases of the program.
Of the over 21 million initial endowments, 10 million were allocated by the Accelerators Fund of Cdp Venture Capital Sgr, 10 made available overall by the Crt Foundation and UniCredit and 1.35 by Plug and Play Tech Center. Takeoff aims to support the implementation and development of companies operating in aerospace, aeronautics, air mobility and advanced hardware, characterized by the application of artificial intelligence and Big Data to manufacturing.
Among the topics, therefore, the technological development of satellites and related software applications, space launchers, solutions for advanced and sustainable air mobility, autonomous aircraft, data driven logistics services, as well as sensors, batteries, semiconductors, computing technologies , robotics and data centers.
The program will select up to 10 startups each year, for three years, that will be able to access a 5-month acceleration path that will lead to the definition of the business model. The best teams selected by the accelerator will also have access to further investments already allocated by the promoters of the initiative, to integrate into the industrial fabric of the territory and to strengthen the ecosystem in which the excellence in the sectors on which Takeoff focuses operate.
“The National Network of Cdp Accelerators now has more than 10 hubs throughout Italy, each focused on an industry with high market potential and all connected to each other to grow a new generation of innovative companies” comments Francesca Bria, president of Cdp Venture Capital Sgr. “Accelerating new startups operating in a strategic sector such as aerospace means consolidating Turin as a European technology hub, investing in frontier technologies and stimulating, through technology transfer, local companies to open up to innovation to help generate employment of quality, competitiveness and strategic autonomy “.
“Crt Foundation invests capital to attract the best companies capable of proposing ideas and implementing projects with high industrial and technological potential: a virtuous path that enhances the Ogr ecosystem and consolidates the territory as a European pole of aerospace, vertical mobility and advanced manufacturing, creating value for the country system ”, underlines Massimo Lapucci, general secretary of the Crt Foundation and managing director of Ogr. And Niccolò Ubertalli, head of UniCredit Italia, concludes: “it represents a concrete investment in support of a territory, strongly oriented towards the culture of innovation. It also allows us to further strengthen the close collaboration with the Crt Foundation. We thus confirm our role. of a Bank with a strong focus on the territory “.