Bocconi University and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano have decided to transfer their respective activities supporting the creation and growth of new businesses to Tech Europe Foundation (TEF). The operation involves the transfer by Fondazione Politecnico di Milano of PoliHub, the deeptech hub of Politecnico di Milano, and, in parallel, by Bocconi University of its entrepreneurial hub Bocconi for Innovation (B4i) and the related venture capital fund B4i Fund SIS.
This merger between the innovative hubs of two of Italy’s most important academic institutions active in the world of entrepreneurship represents a pivotal moment for the Italian ecosystem. The initiative will enable the creation of the synergies and critical mass needed to stimulate growth in the Italian economy, making it a player on a European scale.
Together, these two universities account for approximately 45% of the founders of start-ups based in Italy, according to Dealroom data for 2020–2024. Over the same period, these entrepreneurs raised approximately 92% of the total capital attracted by graduates from all Italian universities, for a total of €5.9 billion.
Looking at the results achieved by the two entrepreneurial hubs, their systemic impact on the Italian innovation ecosystem becomes clear. B4i, founded in 2019, has received more than 4,160 applications and supported over 635 entrepreneurs, establishing itself as one of the leading university hubs for innovation in Italy. Its acceleration and pre-acceleration programmes have contributed to the growth of 68 start-ups and the raising of over €70 million in capital, accompanying young entrepreneurs from the embryonic stage to the market.
PoliHub, the Innovation Park & Startup Accelerator of the Politecnico di Milano, has supported the growth of over 5,350 startups and 20,150 projects since 2013, helping to attract more than €6.55 billion in investments. With around 1,300 applications per year and a portfolio of 16 investments in deeptech start-ups, PoliHub has consolidated its position of excellence at an international level.
Thanks to this integration, which will enable TEF to count on almost two thousand team applications each year and an active portfolio of over 70 innovative companies, the TEF Foundation is strengthening its mission to systematically transform European scientific research excellence into globally competitive deeptech start-ups. The Foundation’s work spans the entire value chain, starting with research support, through strategic support for PhD students, post-docs and scientists, with scholarships and mentorship programmes designed to fund high-potential projects in priority sectors. A second pillar is the promotion of entrepreneurial culture, developed through dedicated programmes such as TEF Ignition: a seven-week course aimed at university students, which attracted 537 applications in its first edition. This is complemented by the structuring of a qualified deal flow, with the aim of generating a constant flow of at least 1,000 start-ups each year, thanks to integration with the entrepreneurial hubs of Bocconi and Politecnico. The model is completed by a system of international partnerships designed to build bridges overseas and foster collaboration with key players in research and innovation, including Creative Destruction Lab (Canada), UnternehmerTUM (Germany), RISE Europe and ISSNAF (USA).
“With this operation,” says Ferruccio Resta, president of Tech Europe Foundation, in a statement, “the two universities are sending a clear signal: to compete on an international scale, critical mass is needed, bringing together skills and resources.” This is how a virtuous circle is activated, capable of attracting new founders and new capital to support the creation and growth of innovative businesses. In this direction, TEF reinforces its mission as an open project, ready to progressively involve other entities in building the partnerships necessary to respond to a structural need of our country and Europe in the field of innovation and technology transfer.
“The merger of the two incubators into TEF marks a radical change. For the Politecnico di Milano, this operation represents a decisive step forward in over twenty years of experience in business incubation,” says Donatella Sciuto, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano. “We are going far beyond collaboration between universities: this merger creates a new entity that thinks on a completely different scale, transcending partisan interests. The numbers tell us that we are on the right track. Now we need the energy of people to turn this into a business.”
“Innovation stems from the ability to create value, jobs and businesses based on knowledge and research, accompanying growth towards global markets and attracting capital,” adds Francesco Billari, Rector of Bocconi University. . “Integration into the Tech Europe Foundation allows Bocconi to bring its experience in entrepreneurial training, qualified deal flow construction and dialogue with finance to a common project, combining it with the technological excellence of the Politecnico. This is how universities can take an active role in the development of research- and technology-intensive businesses: not only as places of knowledge production, but as platforms capable of enabling growth, competitiveness and impact.”
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