The last time we wrote about it in Startupbusiness was in December 2022, when it was about to be listed on the stock exchange. Then nothing more was heard, and it disappeared from the radar. But now it is back, stronger than ever, aware of the mistakes it made, with a new corporate structure, new management and a new industrial project. E-Novia is now ready to develop its role in the market by working with both academic and industrial partners in specific sectors related to physical AI, understood as the convergence between artificial intelligence, advanced sensor technology and embedded systems that allows intelligence to be integrated directly into physical objects, products and processes, and mechatronics, with a completely new approach compared to the one that led to the company’s profound crisis in the past.
CEO Massimiliano Benci (in the opening photo) and Federico Moro, head of venture studio and therefore responsible for start-ups, tell Startupbusiness about the process that has led E-Novia to be active on the market again today after a period of profound crisis. “Coinciding with the stock market listing, which was completed as planned at the end of 2022, we are still listed, but a major financial problem has arisen, mainly due to the inefficiencies of the business model, which involved E-Novia in all stages of the creation and development of start-ups, and this required too much money, about €10 million for each start-up, too many human resources, and we did not always have the actual capacity to do everything and do it well. Of course, there were also successful cases, such as that of Blubrake or those of Yape, Smart Robots, Weart, but for most start-ups there have been major problems in terms of growth capacity and scalability.
This was followed by two years, 2023 and 2024, in which the shareholders intervened to resolve the crisis, the shareholding structure was reviewed, capital injections were made, and both the management and the business model were restructured in order to face 2025 as the year of the relaunch. “The new model is proving effective. We laid the foundations in 2025 with excellent initial signs and results, and now we are approaching 2026 as the year that will allow us to return to being one of the leading players in the Italian innovation ecosystem.”
The new E-novia aims to bring technology and innovation to the market by nurturing new businesses in ways that are highly attentive to the value of what is being developed and the relative financial exposure: “We take care of the executive side of things, but we collaborate on the one hand with the academic world, which is responsible for research and development, and on the other with the industrial world, which deals with everything related to market access. We bridge the gap between these two worlds, bringing academia and industry together. we scout research and development projects together with companies in order to identify the most promising and interesting projects for the market, we select them in the pre-early stage and, once chosen, we become co-founders of the researchers in order to provide them with all the support necessary to transform the research project into a start-up. Above all, by working with industries right from the start, we create the best possible match with both potential market partners and financial partners. .
E-Novia’s revamped start-up scouting programme was launched around five months ago and has so far evaluated 250 potential projects at universities such as the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Pavia. Following the selection process, two projects are already underway, another five are in the final analysis phase, and there are eight start-ups that are still active from the portfolio prior to the restructuring: “We are still in the early stages of developing this new course, and therefore this activity currently generates an insignificant amount of revenue compared to the total of approximately €2.8 million that E-Novia recorded in 2025. Almost all of this revenue comes from consulting activities aimed at both international and Italian companies operating primarily in the fields of innovation management, service and product design, and so-called process AI integration, i.e. the adoption of artificial intelligence solutions within business processes.”
Today, the company has around 200 members, a market capitalisation of approximately €70 million, a staff of 30 people (which rises to around 70 if those working in start-ups are also counted), and an open convertible bond at nominal value to offer a unique opportunity to new investors who may be interested in acquiring a stake in the company and investing in its new business model.
Business difficulties are part of entrepreneurial risk, and this is especially true when it comes to start-ups that are pushing innovation. There are many factors that can lead to crisis: problems within the team or between partners, entering the market at the wrong time, not fully understanding users’ desires, sticking to a business model that is not effective in the market, poor resource management. However, what is important is to understand where you are going wrong, look deep inside and make the necessary decisions, even if they require sacrifices or structural changes. Managing to do all this, overcoming the crisis, and re-entering the market knowing that you also need to rebuild your reputation is not easy, which is why E-Novia’s experience is so interesting. It will also be interesting to follow its future developments and the start-ups that will emerge and grow from this relaunch.
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