Transforming the results of scientific research into a start-up is perhaps the most ambitious and stimulating way to show that your idea has the ability to materially solve a problem. This is well-known among the 21 teams which, on Tuesday 14 June, enlivened the morning session at the MADE Competence Centre with the “Demo Day” for the 2021 edition of Switch2Product. Thanks to the work carried out during the 4 months of acceleration coordinated by PoliHub, the start-ups that won last year’s edition of Switch2Product have shown some of the leading venture capital funds and the initiative’s partner companies how they intend to bring their technological and scientific innovations to the market.
The 14th edition of Switch2Product – Innovation Challengewas also presented on the same day. The application deadline for this initiative is 15 July.
S2P is the Innovation Programme organised by PoliHub, the Politecnico’s Technology Transfer Office and the Officine Innovazione of Deloitte, conceived to support the creation of innovative start-ups by enhancing research activities and promoting entrepreneurialism.
To gather ideas from as many people as possible, the initiative is targeted at a broad spectrum of people: students, researchers, PhD students, lecturers and alumni of the Politecnico di Milano, POLIMI Graduate School of Management, Poli.design, as well as alumni or students enrolled at other affiliated universities and/or research organisations.
Those who are selected will have experts at their side to guide them along a pathway of entrepreneurial empowerment. The teams will also have access to grants and tailored acceleration courses, but above all, at the end of the course they will be able to enter into contact with investors and business partners who will allow them to create a PoC and obtain investment aimed at transforming the idea into a start-up.
There are four application categories: Health&Med Tech, Climate Tech & Circular Economy, Industries Transformation, New ways of working and living.
“The idea on its own is not enough. Even if it is good, it needs materiality. It must be supported, targeted and enhanced. For around fourteen years, Switch2Product has been a reference point within the ecosystem of the Politecnico and businesses; it is a mark of quality for investors; it is terrain for discussion among young entrepreneurs and expert businesspeople”, commented Donatella Sciuto, Executive Vice Rector of the Politecnico di Milano. “Over the last three years the number S2P applications has risen to more than six hundred; early stage pre-seed and seed investment has increased to almost seven million euros; the number of companies arriving on the market has multiplied (36 companies established). It is in this context of strong positive signals such as those arriving from this competition that the Politecnico is aiming to regenerate gas holders in the Bovisa area, in an attempt to create an ad hoc space for start-ups, placed at the centre of a veritable district of innovation.”
“S2P is confirmed as a programme par excellence”, concluded Andrea Sianesi, PoliHub President. ““In recent years, PoliHub has given life to a machine capable of creating deep tech start-ups, thanks to courses and methodologies developed ad hoc and the support of an impressive community of mentors, leveraging on its solid relationships with investors and business partners. An increasingly extensive network of stakeholders interested in the value of innovation is the driving force behind Switch2Product, the most important challenge in Italy, fostering projects that can be transformed into businesses which enrich the country’s entrepreneurial fabric and contribute to building its future every year”..
