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Research on Innovative Startups and SMEs in Turin: three Turin startups in comparison

Aerospace, cybersecurity and biotech: the opinions of three companies active in our territory about the local innovation ecosystem.

Yesterday morning, at Talent Garden Fondazione Agnelli, we take part at the presentation of the Annual Research on Innovative Startups and SMEs in Turin, conducted by Club degli Investitori with the contribution of Turin Chamber of Commerce, ESCP Business School, ToTeM Torino Tech Map and with the support of UniCredit.

During the event Alisa Sydow, Assistant Professor of the course in Entrepreneurship at the Turin campus of ESCP Business School, met Paolo Madonia, Giulio Coluccia and Emilio Hirsch representing, respectively, the startups Aiko, ToothPic and Kither Biotech.

Aiko is a deep tech company focused on finding applications for artificial intelligence in aerospace to enable autonomous space missions that solve scalability problems in the industry.

ToothPic, a spin-off of the Politecnico di Torino, deals with cybersecurity through a technology that was first intended for research applications and then grew thanks to technology transfer. Thanks to ToothPic the photographic sensors of mobile devices can become a secure authentication tool that can have applications in banking, insurance or in the use of digital identities such as SPID.

Kither Biotech is a pharmaceutical startup that focuses its R&D activities on developing new drugs to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, especially lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis or idiopathic fibrosis. It is currently in the early stages of testing with selected groups of patients.

Why have you decided to base your work in Turin?

Aiko: We started in Turin mainly for professional reasons. Turin offers a very good substratum for our activities thanks to the Politecnico di Torino, a pole of attraction for talents in the technical field, and thanks to many efforts that are contributing to make the city an aerospace excellence, so far at national level but soon also at European level.

Toothpic: Turin was not a choice for us but a path that developed naturally. Being born as a spin-off of the Politecnico di Torino has allowed us to forge important ties with both the I3P incubator and the Club degli Investitori.

Kither: Turin has incredible skills and capabilities. It is a city historically capable of managing innovation, just think of how many Nobel Prize winners from Turin there have been in history or how many academics who have made a difference in completely changing their disciplinary fields were trained or led their professional lives in Turin.

The research, however, has shown that in Turin there is a great variety of technical skills but still some lack in terms of managerial ones...

Kither: For us, having people with great managerial experience on the team has been fundamental for our growth, but we already had these people internally. Actually, there were some difficulties in looking for them externally. Turin still lacks this competence rooted in the territory, despite its entrepreneurial history.

Giulio, what is your experience with investors in Turin?

Toothpic: Our first round in 2018 was definitely facilitated by our ties with the Politecnico, we got it in fact after getting in touch with a fund that supported public research. Let's say it was a lucky coincidence. The second round, on the other hand, was facilitated by our incubation process and the periodic meetings that I3P organized to put resident startups in contact with the Club degli Investitori. The fact that there was a facilitation does not mean that it was an easy path but certainly our impression is that the existence of an ecosystem and strong ties in the territory are two factors that direct and polarize a lot..

Paolo, what is one of the advantages for a startup like Aiko that the territory has been able to offer you?

Aiko: As already mentioned, the proximity, presence and proactivity of the Politecnico di Torino, I consider it a really spectacular hotbed of talent in Italy. Also the way they ground ideas and surround them with a support network of enormous value, through the I3P incubation, is something that is really valuable for those who want to do startups. Personally it facilitated us a lot on the initial path, they were definitely two crucial "forces" that allowed us to surround ourselves with talent right from the start.

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Luca Coppolella
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