CDP Venture Capital Sgr recently launched Faros, an accelerator for start-ups operating in the Blue Economy.
CDP Venture Capital SGR – National Innovation Fund is part of Italian public investment bank CDP Group, and operates through direct and indirect investment funds, to support start-ups in all stages of their life cycle, with the aim of making the venture capital system a cornerstone of Italy’s economic development and innovation.
According to a press release, Faros is part of CDP’s National Network of Accelerators, a network of physical accelerators in Italy, focused on the most innovative districts, to help the growth of start-ups specialised in areas with high market potential.
Faros stems from an initiative of CDP Venture Capital Sgr through its Accelerators Fund, and is implemented together with a|cube, an accelerator and incubator focused on entities with a high social and environmental impact and with the involvement of the international accelerator PortXL, world leader in the acceleration of start-ups in the port and maritime sectors. In addition, the program is supported by the Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mar Ionio – Porto di Taranto, and by the Municipality of Taranto.
With initial assets under management of approximately €3 million allocated by CDP Venture Capital’s Accelerators Fund for acceleration investments and subsequent follow-ons post-acceleration, in addition to over 1 million Euro from corporate and institutional partners, the accelerator Faros aims to enhance the growth of start-ups that develop innovative products or solutions in the sectors of port logistics and automation, the sustainable use of marine resources and coastal tourism, which represent sectors with great development potential.
“Maritime transport is one of the main facilitators of the global economy and the Italian port areas, which have guided the development of our country for centuries, will remain a strategic asset also in the near future, even though they will face major technological and production model changes”, comments Francesca Bria, President of CDP Venture Capital SGR.
“For this reason, we believe it is essential to launch an acceleration process dedicated to start-ups and young innovative businesses operating in the Blue Economy, so that they can develop new sustainable resource management models and new solutions in a sector that is so highly integrated into the ecosystem”.
Each year and for three years, around 8 start-ups in the seed and pre-seed stages will be selected and will then be able to access a structured process of support from the accelerator’s partners, which will guide them towards the validation of their business model. Furthermore, the best teams will have access to additional investments already allocated by the initiative’s promoters.
The call for the selection of the first start-ups is open until 15 February 2022 on the website farosaccelerator.com.
