Through Elevo, Elemaster is opening its industrial capabilities to start-ups, spin-offs and emerging technology companies across Europe.
A prototype may prove that a technology works, but it does not yet demonstrate that the same technology can become a dependable industrial product.
For deep tech start-ups, the passage from technical validation to market readiness requires decisions that extend far beyond the original idea. Product architecture, materials, components, testing, production processes, supply-chain continuity and scalability all influence whether an innovation can be manufactured reliably and repeatedly.
Elevo Innovation Hub was established by Elemaster to address this phase of the development journey. The initiative gives start-ups, spin-offs and emerging technology companies access to the industrial knowledge that the Group has developed over almost fifty years.
Its role is not to replace accelerators or incubators, nor to accompany companies across every dimension of their growth. Elevo operates at a more specific point: when a promising technology must begin to take the form of an industrial product.
A network spanning research, education and innovation
Although its activities began only a few months ago, Elevo is already connected with a broad European innovation network.
The Hub has launched collaborations with Politecnico di Milano and Fondazione Chips-IT, Italy’s first research institute dedicated to semiconductor integrated circuit design. It is also working with innovation organisations such as Gellify and Talent Garden.
Another collaboration involves imec.istart, a European acceleration programme focused on applied deep tech start-ups. The programme operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Italy and has a portfolio comprising more than 370 start-ups and scale-ups.
Through these relationships, Elevo is currently supporting around ten projects developed by start-ups working in highly complex fields, including medical devices and space technology.
Why the timing of industrial input matters
One of the central ideas behind Elevo is that industrial expertise should enter the development process before the most important product decisions become fixed.
Start-ups often approach manufacturers only after defining the main architecture of their technology. At that stage, changing components, materials, production methods or supply-chain choices may require significant additional time, cost and risk.
Elevo anticipates this conversation.
By involving industrial specialists while the product is still evolving, the Hub allows technical and manufacturing considerations to influence the architecture before later constraints make modifications more difficult.
The type of support varies according to the project. It can include technical assessments, product architecture reviews, manufacturability analyses and evaluations of possible supply-chain limitations. Elevo may also contribute to the definition of an industrial roadmap and help identify the actions required to move a technology closer to the market.
This approach introduces a perspective that is often not available during the first stages of deep tech development: a practical understanding of what will be required to produce the solution consistently, at scale and with the expected level of reliability.
“Elevo Innovation Hub stems from a very practical observation: Europe, and Italy in particular, already has a significant industrial heritage, built on engineering expertise, specialised supply chains, advanced manufacturing and companies capable of producing complex products,” explains Ivo Boniolo, Head of Elevo Innovation Hub.
“The challenge is to make this heritage more accessible to start-ups at the right time – while the product architecture is still open and decisions concerning components, materials, supply chains, costs and reliability can genuinely influence the company’s growth path. Our role is to help deep tech start-ups engage with industrial realities earlier, so that promising technologies can become more robust, manufacturable and scalable solutions.”
Different sectors, shared industrial challenges
The projects currently examined by Elevo operate in different markets, but many of the obstacles they face are similar.
For a space technology start-up, the viability of a product may depend on its ability to function in demanding environments. Weight, energy consumption, reliability, electronic architecture, access to components and supply-chain continuity can all determine whether a prototype is suitable for industrial development.
In medtech, an idea originating from scientific research or clinical practice must be transformed into a system that can deliver consistent performance. It must be reliable, repeatable and testable, while also fitting within complex manufacturing and regulatory processes.
Advanced industrial technologies present comparable challenges. Robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, electronic systems and new materials must be combined in a form that companies can adopt and use realistically.
In each case, industrial input can reveal issues that may not be immediately apparent during the research or prototyping phase.
Elemaster’s contribution covers the complete path from electronic design and engineering to component selection, testing, industrialisation and manufacturing. Bringing these capabilities into a project early helps start-ups evaluate constraints before they become barriers and make critical decisions with a clearer understanding of their industrial consequences.
“The Elevo programme has been created to bring the industrial depth developed by Elemaster over almost fifty years into these processes: a combination of methodology, expertise and production capability that can help deep tech start-ups reduce the distance between innovation, engineering and industry,” says Valentina Cogliati, CEO and President of the Elemaster Group.
“In the sectors in which we operate, the quality of the final product increasingly depends on upstream decisions concerning architecture, components, materials, reliability, testing and scalability. Making this experience available to start-ups allows us to enhance the knowledge distributed across the Group while also helping bring to market innovations that require a strong industrial foundation in order to grow.”
Improving the product before manufacturing begins
Elevo Innovation Hub therefore acts as a connection point between two environments that do not always meet early enough: deep tech innovation and industrial production.
The objective is not limited to manufacturing a solution after its design has been completed. Elevo seeks to contribute while that design can still evolve, allowing industrial considerations to improve the product before production begins.
Through this model, Elemaster aims to help emerging technologies become more reliable, more producible, more scalable and better prepared for the market.
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