PRIVATE SECTOR

One hundred and fifty-six applications were completed for the second international call of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) from global defence firm Leonardo.

In 2023, Leonardo’s startup accelerator aims to select up to ten startups capable of developing innovative solutions to help expand the company’s digital service offering.

“The numbers recorded testify to the consolidation of Leonardo’s BIF as the leading startup accelerator in the Aerospace Defence & Security sector,” explains Paolo Salvato, Senior Vice President Strategic Innovative Projects at Leonardo.

“The Founders’ awareness of the value of a Corporate Accelerator has increased This allows them to accelerate startups exponentially faster thanks to the Group’s skills, knowledge and assets, and to obtain business and technology deals and access to investments,” stresses Salvato.

Leonardo and their partner LVenture's teams are working on selecting the Top 20 who will be invited to the Selection Day, which will choose the ten best proposals admitted to the acceleration programme starting at the end of May and closing in November with a Demo Day also open to investors.

“Compared to the first BIF, we have brought forward the identification of Leonardo’s use cases of interest that the Proof of Concept will validate. This is crucial to understand the industrial value of the proposed solutions,”

explains Salvato