The first Italian robotics centre RoboIT to be launched

RoboIT is the first of the National Technology Transfer Centres that CDP Venture Capital SGR will be financing through the Technology Transfer Fund with the aim of maximising the results of scientific and technological research and supporting the launch of new startups within universities and prestigious research centres.

The centre has involved an investment of €40 million and will be located in the Valpolcevera area close to the new San Giorgio Bridge in Genoa, where Europe’s first Robot Valley is being created, and will operate according to a Hub & Spoke model. Researchers will be provided with the economic resources and specialist expertise necessary to conduct an initial technical and business feasibility study within the participating Universities and Research Centres (the Spokes), followed by entrepreneurial acceleration services to support the creation of new national robotics startups on the premises of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa (the Hub).

Enrico Resmini CEO CDP Venture Capital SGR

RoboIT was set up in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Genoa and with the contribution of the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Verona, the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Pariter Partners, Leonardo, Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer and Cysero EuVECA.

Agreements are also being finalised with institutional bodies and other companies that will add a further €40 million to the investment, resulting in an estimated total leverage effect of more than €100 million over four years for the creation and development of more than 50 new companies.

The Robotics and Automation sector is undergoing rapid development in Italy and is recognised as a world leader for its centres of expertise, with more than 104,000 companies (+10% in the last 5 years), 429,000 employees and a turnover of about €5 billion in 2020. There are already more than 615 startups and innovative SMEs operating in the sector, while upward of 6,000 European patents in robotics have been filed in Italy in the last 10 years, making up a rapidly developing ecosystem within a global market that is expected to see growth of 245% in logistics applications and 189% in the biomedical sector over the next five years.

However, the project has much broader development ambitions: through the FTT fund, CDP Venture Capital SGR plans to invest €275 million in the entire technology transfer chain and create national centres located throughout the country.