Space-tech and artificial intelligence: Italian tech touches down in Seattle, 11 startups engage with US giants

04/12/2023

The Primo.Innovare. programme takes some of the most innovative Italian aerospace and AI enterprises to the US

The selected enterprises work on everything from mixed reality to simplify work during space walks, through to mouldable solid-state supercapacitors for high-performance electric vehicles, as well as the space “sunflower” that will enable orbiting structures to accumulate more energy with solar panels. Eleven Italian startups have been selected to participate on 4 December at the World Trade Centre in Seattle, in the US, in the Primo.Innovare. summit, an internationalisation programme created by Area Science Park and Serena–private operating foundation, giving Italian startups the opportunity to engage with some of the most important players in the US market.

After the first edition in Seattle in 2022, and the following events in New York and Boston in 2023, this new event takes place in the state of Washington. The goal is to introduce 11 young, innovative Italian enterprises active in the sectors of artificial intelligence and aerospace to one of the most vibrant areas for these sectors in the US and in the world.

The programme
The event on 4 December will begin with a visit to the Boeing factory in Renton, in the metropolitan area of Seattle. The startups will be taken to the manufacturing heart of the aircraft giant, discussing their innovative solutions. In the afternoon, the main part of the event will take place at Seattle’s World Trade Centre. The summit will be introduced by the Deputy Consul General of Italy in San Francisco, Davide Corriero, before handing over to the startups, which will present to an audience of around one hundred investors and big companies from the area, including members of the Greater Seattle Partners, which numbers 900 local businesses in the aerospace sector alone (including the aforementioned Boeing and Blue Origin). Some of the most important will take part in the round-table session to be held during the event, with executives from Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon (Project Kuiper) and Google (NASA Project), as well as Umbra Group, an Italian industrial enterprise that is already a supplier of Boeing with operations in the state of Washington. The event will also see the participation of Eviation Aircraft – manufacturer of the first twin-engine electric plane, Alice – and analyst AIR-Aerospace Intelligence.

Primo. Innovare. goes beyond the physical event. The pitches made by startups will be uploaded and remain available in the virtual expo created on the website primoinnovare.org, providing a further opportunity to cultivate business remotely over the coming months.

Organisation
The varied delegation of Italian startups was selected by the national research institution Area Science Park, which organised the event together with Serena. “With Primo. Innovare. we are creating an exclusive networking opportunity for innovative startups from various regions of Italy, offering them a unique platform to present their businesses to investors, venture-capital funds and leaders of some of the biggest US companies. Once again, innovation is a bridge between Italy and the US, common ground on which to strengthen relations between our countries and build new relationships”, stated Fabrizio Rovatti, technological director at Area Science Park.

“Historically, Italy has always been at the forefront of the aviation industry. Primo. Innovare. now introduces a delegation of new entrepreneurs to Seattle, with their innovative enterprises demonstrating recent advances in the aerospace sector. This acceleration is made even more exciting by the development of artificial intelligence systems, included as another central theme of this year’s summit. Following the excellent results of the 2022 edition, we continue to focus on synergies between Italy and the Pacific Northwest of the US, an area boasting 900 companies working in the sector offering employment to over 99,000 people in the Seattle area alone”, declared Davide Viganò cofounder and President of Serena Corp, a non-profit foundation focused on promoting all that is beautiful about Italy and its entrepreneurial culture, and, above all, generating value, collaborations and opportunities for innovation between Italy and the Pacific Northwest.

The project is also supported by Innovit, the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub in San Francisco, a physical space combining activity fostering technological, scientific and innovative Italian ecosystems – through its Innovation Centre – with that of the Italian Institute of Culture, opened in 2022. The Centre has enhanced the range of innovation solutions offered by Primo. Innovare. bringing innovative enterprises to Seattle that participated in the Call4Innovit-Space Economy acceleration initiative in 2023.

The selected startups

04/12/2023

Space-tech and artificial intelligence: Italian tech touches down in Seattle, 11 startups engage with US giants

The Primo.Innovare. programme takes some of the most innovative Italian aerospace and AI enterprises to the US

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