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 \u20ac38 million funding round with A2A and CDP Venture Capital as lead investors, each contributing \u20ac10 million. The transaction also involves AFL, the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, Pirelli, VC Partners SGR, MOST \u2013 National Centre for Sustainable Mobility, and the ICO Falck Foundation, as well as individual investors with an international profile. <\/p>\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n
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 \u2013 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\u2019s technological and industrial foundation. <\/p>\n\n
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 \u2013 the Group\u2019s innovation arm \u2013 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\u2019s 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. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cMobility in Europe over the next ten years will be multimodal, smart and heavily reliant on autonomous driving within shared fleets. \u201cEurope needs its own autonomous driving industry, built on its own rules, values and infrastructure. Niulinx will be at the forefront of this revolution,\u201d says Luca Foresti, CEO of Niulinx (pictured here with the team, including CFO Gian Marco Felice and CTO Cristiano Bonetti), in a statement. <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe 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.\u201d “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. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n “With this investment \u2013 A2A Life Ventures\u2019 first direct investment in a start-up \u2013 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 <\/p>\n\n \u201cAutonomous 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.\u201d Niulinx fills this gap with a distinctive approach: a comprehensive, proprietary technology platform \u2013 ranging from environmental sensing to remote fleet management \u2013 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 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n The \u20ac38 million investment will fund Niulinx\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The spin-off from the Politecnico di Milano is raising capital through a deal led by A2A and CDP Venture Capital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":162646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1317],"tags":[2236,1143,1137,1136,1145],"companies":[3335],"journalist":[1518],"class_list":["post-162648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funding-news","tag-europa-en","tag-investments","tag-italy-en","tag-startup-en-2","tag-venture-capital-en-2","companies-niulinx","journalist-editorial-staff-en"],"featured_sizes_urls":{"thumbnail":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-11-at-10.32.29.webp","width":150,"height":113,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"guida autonoma italia"},"large":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-11-at-10.32.29.webp","width":1024,"height":768,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"guida autonoma italia"},"2048x2048":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-11-at-10.32.29.webp","width":1600,"height":1200,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"guida autonoma italia"}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n