Niulinx, a spin-off from the Politecnico di Milano that aims to develop Italian-made autonomous driving technology, has announced that it has closed a €38 million funding round with A2A and CDP Venture Capital as lead investors, each contributing €10 million. The transaction also involves AFL, the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, Pirelli, VC Partners SGR, MOST – National Centre for Sustainable Mobility, and the ICO Falck Foundation, as well as individual investors with an international profile.
The global market for autonomous driving is currently worth over $50 billion and is expected to exceed $300 billion by 2035, the company said in a statement. Whilst the United States and China have several major players, Europe does not yet have a leading European player. Niulinx was founded to fill this gap: not by replicating the American model, but by building a European industrial approach that is regulatory-first, capital-efficient, and designed to scale through a franchising model with local operators.
Niulinx develops the entire technological system that enables autonomous driving: from environmental perception to route planning, from vehicle control to remote fleet management. The technology stems from the AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Driving Autonomous) research group at the Politecnico di Milano, coordinated by Sergio Matteo Savaresi, director of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and an international expert in the field. The type-approval process for autonomous vehicles in Europe is already underway.
Niulinx does not start with an idea but with real-world validation. In 2025, the pilot project by the A2A Group, the Politecnico di Milano and MOST – National Centre for Sustainable Mobility brought to the streets of Brescia the testing of an autonomous driving technology resulting from research aimed at enabling an innovative car-sharing model unique in Europe: electric vehicles capable of reaching the user autonomously, allowing them to drive to their destination and then heading to a wireless charging station or a new customer. This project represents the company’s technological and industrial foundation.
The investor consortium represents a unique convergence of the Italian mobility, energy and infrastructure sectors: A2A, through the first direct investment by A2A Life Ventures – the Group’s innovation arm – as part of its corporate venture capital strategy for autonomous and sustainable mobility; and CDP Venture Capital, participating via the Artificial Intelligence Fund, launched in October 2024 with the support of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. The aim: to develop Italian leaders in artificial intelligence capable of ensuring digital sovereignty and competitiveness at European level. Furthermore, AFL, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Pirelli, VC Partners with the VC Partners Fund I, MOST and Fondazione ICO Falck complete the round, bringing expertise in energy, advanced materials, transport infrastructure, venture capital and research into sustainable mobility. Among these is the ICO Falck Foundation, which has decided to continue supporting the initiative after having previously backed the Milan Polytechnic’s autonomous driving trial project in Darfo Boario Terme. They are joined by Emilio Frazzoli (formerly CTO of nuTonomy/Motional, now a professor at ETH Zurich) and Stefano Bernardi, both high-profile international investors.
“Mobility in Europe over the next ten years will be multimodal, smart and heavily reliant on autonomous driving within shared fleets. “Europe needs its own autonomous driving industry, built on its own rules, values and infrastructure. Niulinx will be at the forefront of this revolution,” says Luca Foresti, CEO of Niulinx (pictured here with the team, including CFO Gian Marco Felice and CTO Cristiano Bonetti), in a statement.
“The founding of Niulinx is the result of a journey that has unfolded over time, beginning with research into autonomous driving carried out at the Politecnico di Milano.” “Seeing these skills translate into a spin-off capable of attracting leading industrial partners and investors means giving continuity and a future to scientific work that has a tangible impact on the mobility of the future,” adds Sergio Matteo Savaresi.
“With this investment – A2A Life Ventures’ first direct investment in a start-up – we are helping to transform an experimental project into a tangible industrial reality. We believe that Niulinx has the potential to become a success story within the international innovation ecosystem, capable of leveraging academic research and technology transfer in partnership with corporations and venture capital funds,” says Patrick Oungre, CEO of A2A Life Ventures
“Autonomous driving is a rapidly expanding sector with significant strategic implications, yet Europe does not yet have a player capable of competing on a large scale.” Niulinx fills this gap with a distinctive approach: a comprehensive, proprietary technology platform – ranging from environmental sensing to remote fleet management – and an ambitious growth strategy based on collaboration with local operators. “We have great faith in this team, which has already turned a scientific vision into operational technology and now has the opportunity to establish itself as a leading player in the industry across the continent,” says Alessandro Scortecci, Head of Direct Investments at CDP Venture Capital
The €38 million investment will fund Niulinx’s technological and industrial growth in three key areas: the completion of the autonomous driving stack and the European type-approval process; the expansion of the team to over 100 engineers and data scientists; and the launch of a franchising model with local operators in key European markets, starting with Germany.
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