NEXT GENERATION EU
KEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
15/11/2021

Introducing Tech4Planet

Up to €55 million for the development of businesses dedicated to environmental sustainability

Tech4Planet, the second National Technology Transfer Centre ofCDP Venture Capital Sgr has been set up to promote market access and the growth of new companies conceived in research laboratories and dedicated to environmental sustainability, particularly in the energytech, circular economy, sustainable manufacturing, smart mobility and water management sectors. 

With a total investment of up to €55 million from the Technology Transfer Fund of CDP Venture Capital Sgr, the Tech4Planet Hub was created in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano with the involvement of the Politecnico di Torino and the Politecnico di Bari. Part of the overall investment will also be dedicated to supporting the launch of new venture capital funds specialising in the environmental sustainability sectors, which be tasked with continuing to finance the most promising start-ups

An investment strategy, on the one hand, geared to increase the technological and business maturity of the inventions produced by research and, on the other hand, designed to strengthen the venture capital system specialised in key frontier technologies for our country. 

Sustainability, development of the territory and strengthening of the major centres of innovation: these are priority aspects in the policies for the relaunch of the country that this initiative fully grasps. 

comments Ferruccio Resta, Rector of Politecnico di Milano. 

The Tech4Planet hub will engage important industrial players operating in the sector  and will be distributed throughout the territory through the laboratories of the Politecnico di Milano, Torino and Bari, which will contribute to the research of projects with a high market impact, also triggering a catalytic effect on the regions of southern Italy. 

The researchers involved will benefit from economic resources and specialist skills to carry out technical and business feasibility studies, thanks to the involvement of their respective incubators: PoliHub, I3P and the newly established incubator of the Politecnico di Bari. 

The Politecnico di Milano, one of the first universities in Italy to set up a business incubator, today joins the Politecnico di Torino and the Politecnico di Bari in a nationwide project that demonstrates, to all intents and purposes, the centrality of the academic system in entrepreneurial development.  

The entrepreneurial acceleration phase for the transfer of inventions to the market will then be carried out at the Gasometri Innovation District of the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with PoliHub and specialised international partners, and it will also be open to the research projects already set up in companies by the entire network of Italian universities and research centres. 

The Politecnico di Milano Foundation is one of the co-investors in the Tech4Planet hub, and important agreements are being finalised with leading companies in the sector and institutional bodies, which will increase the €55 million investment currently being allocated by CDP Venture Capital, with a potential overall estimated leverage effect of more than €130 million over 4 years for the creation and development of more than 60 new companies. 

Within this network, the Gasometri Innovation District is a strategic node: a meeting point for university research, companies and venture capital in a European context. A resource that gives life to the new Tech4Planet hub thanks to the partnership with CDP Venture Capital. And the concrete demonstration of a synergy that is capable of exploiting what already exists as part of a broader relaunch plan that looks to the future of new generations of entrepreneurs as part of the country system. 

Environmental sustainability is one of the most pressing challenges of our century and the key focus of the European Green Deal’s commitment to achieve a progressive and complete decarbonisation of the system by 2050. Internationally, venture capital is definitely moving towards investments in this sector. In Italy, VC investments in this sector only account for 0.8% of European investments, also due to the lack of specialized funds. Nevertheless, Italy has a great potential in terms of publications in the field of “Renewable energy, sustainability and environment”, where it is the fifth country in the world and third in Europe. 

Green Deal

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