Leonardo and LVenture have placed their expertise at the disposal of this first group of start-ups and university spin-offs with a ‘full-stack’ approach, from acceleration to exit.
The participants, accompanied by Leonardo's mentors and the LVenture staff, focused their pitches on two areas: servitiation – supply of hi-tech services linked to data collection and data exploitation – and autonomous mobility and navigation systems. The aim of the Business Innovation Factory programme is to select, over the next three years, up to ten start-ups per year that will expand Leonardo’s digital service offering through innovative solutions.
The demo day, moderated by Paolo Salvato, SVP Strategy & Business Innovation at Leonardo, was attended by the Chairman and the CEO of the company, Luciano Carta and Alessandro Profumo, who focused on the importance of fuelling and supporting Leonardo’s innovation ecosystem.
In a market scenario where digital technologies have profoundly changed the way we innovate, “Leonardo too needs to open its doors to start-ups in a structured manner, with the aim of ‘accompanying’ them, discretely yet radically, in the direction of our technological developments, from a scientific and cultural standpoint”, stated Mr Carta.
“We need to be the first to open up to what’s new and embrace innovation wherever it takes place. Collaborations with start-ups and academia are crucial, as - in addition to traditional innovation - they constitute a further building block towards strengthening Leonardo’s competitive positioning over the next ten years,” said Mr Profumo, as he applauded the considerable improvements and great developments achieved since last year’s inauguration in May.
BIF thus remains a centre of excellence for developing high-potential technology solutions supporting the Be Tomorrow 2030 strategic plan from the perspective of openness to innovation.