CDP Venture Capital bet onArtificial intelligence cybersecurity with SophIA, new National Technology Transfer Center dedicated to the creation and growth of deep tech startups. The project, created in partnership with Scientific Venture Capital, starts with a endowment of 27,5 million of euros and aims to support over 20 initiatives over the next three years, from proof-of-concept to pre-seed and seed stages.
The goal is to accelerate the transition from research to market, transforming scientific results and cutting-edge technologies into new businesses and highly qualified skills. SophIA combines the strategic vision of CDP Venture Capital with the entrepreneurial know-how of Scientifica Venture Capital, through a collaboration between public and private capital and the involvement of leading Italian research centers. Promoters include: Federico II University of Naples, Politecnico di Milano, Italian Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI4I), Fondazione Bruno Kessler e Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Agreements with corporate partners are also being finalized.
SophIA, from AI to robots: what will the Center fund?
SophIA's technological perimeter is broad and covers the entire supply chain.artificial intelligence, from foundation models to advanced architectures, from new training methods to multimodal and decentralized models, up to intelligent agents for automation, interaction and collaboration between systems.
The focus also looks at the industrial, scientific and infrastructural applicationsProcess automation, materials and drug design, autonomous and collaborative robotics, digital twins, space robotics, and edge computing. Emerging hardware, from neuromorphic to analog and bio-inspired technologies, and high-performance computing infrastructure, including cloud computing and AI accelerators, complete the picture.
Scientifica Venture Capital, the Polo's entrepreneurial partner, brings to the project a portfolio of 21 deep tech startups and skills ranging from AI to machine learning, from complex systems engineering to business building. His role will be to guide projects throughout the entire process, from technology sourcing to due diligence, up to the Proof of Concept (PoC) and Seed rounds, and post-investment monitoring.
AI, a €61,1 billion market in Europe
The birth of SophIA is part of a rapidly expanding AI market. According to Grand View Research, the European Artificial Intelligence market was worth approximately €61,1 billion in 2024 and could grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33,2% between 2025 and 2030.
Italy is also accelerating: according to theArtificial Intelligence Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, in 2024 the national AI market reached 1,2 billion euros, with a growth of 58% compared to 2023.
There is also a significant scientific basis behind this development. Italy ranks ninth in the world for the number of publications on AI, with over 40,000 papers published between 2018 and 2023. Furthermore, there are more than 200 university courses available at 50 universities and approximately 581 doctoral programs annually in disciplines related to artificial intelligence.
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For Claudia Pingue, Senior Partner and Head of the Technology Transfer Fund at CDP Venture Capital, the new hub represents a strategic step towards strengthening Italian technology transfer: "SophIA represents a strategic element of our plan to strengthen technology transfer in Italy, fostering the development of national scientific expertise and accelerating the path from innovation to market in an increasingly crucial sector." Pingue also emphasizes the strategic value of investing in AI and cybersecurity for national competitiveness, with the aim of creating new, highly qualified professional opportunities.
Scientifica Venture Capital is also focusing on transforming research into business. The Managing Partner Riccardo D'Alessandri He emphasizes that "it's not enough to finance good ideas," but that technologies must be supported along the path from "the lab to the market," through entrepreneurial skills, execution capabilities, and adequate infrastructure.
For Giorgio Ventre, delegate of the rector of the Federico II University of Naples for SophIA, AI and cybersecurity require not only scientific expertise but also a production structure capable of leveraging them. "SophIA brings together venture capital and leading Italian research centers to increase the country's ability to create highly specialized spin-offs to serve businesses and public administration," he stated.
From the Polytechnic University of Milan, the Rector's delegate for Technology Transfer Marco Bocciolone Instead, it emphasizes the importance of integrating universities, research, and capital: “Initiatives like the SophIA hub contribute to this goal, encouraging the creation of new deep tech companies and the development of national and European technological competitiveness.”
Along the same lines Fabio Pammolli, president of AI4I, according to whom “Technology transfer represents one of the decisive steps in transforming scientific excellence into industrial innovation and new entrepreneurship”.
For the Bruno Kessler Foundation, as the president explains Ferruccio Stay, the challenge is to transform research into concrete results: "Today, however, the decisive leap is to transform this excellence into impact", through market-ready technologies and new entrepreneurial initiatives.
Finally, Giorgio Metta, scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology, calls SophIA "a fundamental building block for strengthening the Italian technology transfer chain" and emphasizes how AI is becoming central to sectors ranging from materials design to drug development, from robotics to the protection of digital infrastructure.
