In advanced electronics, innovation does not usually move in a straight line. New ideas emerge from universities, research centres, start-ups, industrial partners and internal R&D teams, but recognising their potential is only the first step. The more demanding task is understanding how those technologies can evolve into products that are reliable, scalable and compliant with the requirements of real markets.
For companies active in high-tech sectors, this is where open innovation becomes increasingly relevant. It creates access to new directions in technology, encourages early dialogue with emerging players and helps connect research activity with engineering needs and market expectations. At the same time, it offers deep tech start-ups a more structured route towards industrial maturity, giving them the opportunity to work alongside partners that already operate in complex, regulated and performance-driven environments.
This is the space in which Elemaster, through Eletech, the Group’s Innovation Design Centre and R&D lead, is developing Elevo. More than a simple initiative, Elevo functions as a structured environment where external innovation, applied research and industrial know-how can meet. Its role is concrete: helping promising technologies move closer to the conditions required for adoption in real industrial contexts.
A practical example of this approach was the Elevo Showcase, held on 5 May 2026 at Eletech’s headquarters in partnership with Gellify. The event brought together seven start-ups working in areas that are becoming increasingly important for industrial transformation, including environmental monitoring, Earth observation, road safety, autonomous navigation, diagnostics, energy storage and smart infrastructure.
Open innovation as an industrial method
The Showcase was designed to observe how emerging technologies are evolving across sectors shaped by electronics, software, data and system integration, and to understand how those technologies can move closer to industrial application.
For an industrial group, this kind of exchange creates direct access to technologies that may influence future product development. For start-ups, it opens the door to technical expertise, sector knowledge and development capabilities that can help shorten the distance between prototype, validation and market readiness.
This dynamic is particularly important in sectors such as transport, medical, energy, robotics, avionics and defence, where products must satisfy strict technical, regulatory and operational requirements. In these contexts, having an interesting idea is not enough. A technology also needs engineering discipline, testing capacity, certification pathways, manufacturing awareness and a long-term view of the product lifecycle.
Elevo operates precisely in this space. It connects new ideas with the capabilities needed to develop, test, adapt and mature them. At the same time, it allows the Group to remain close to emerging research trends, entrepreneurial talent and technologies that are developing outside the traditional boundaries of industrial organisations.
Start-ups and technologies moving towards industrial maturity
The start-ups presented during the Elevo Showcase reflected both the diversity of today’s innovation landscape and the increasing convergence between hardware, software, AI and data.
- Involve Space introduced stratospheric platforms designed for real-time Earth data acquisition. The company is also developing an Earth OS capable of integrating data from multiple sources and domains, using GeoAI to transform complex information into operational answers. It recently secured €12.5 million through the EIC Accelerator and is opening a Series A round of €15–20 million.
- Flofleet presented electric airships developed for environmental monitoring and geophysical inspection. Its solution aims to offer a lighter and more flexible alternative to conventional aerial platforms for data collection in complex environments. The company is preparing new test campaigns in the Middle East with its latest airship.
- Evolunar showcased autonomous navigation technology for drones that can operate beyond GPS. Originally created for lunar applications, its POLARIS system is intended to support resilient navigation in complex and contested scenarios. The company has been selected for the NATO DIANA programme and is preparing a funding round to support industrialisation and commercial deployment.
- Novac presented advanced supercapacitors and high-power energy storage systems for demanding applications. Its work focuses on safety, efficiency and performance in areas where power density and reliability are critical. After closing a €3.5 million seed round in early 2025, the company is preparing two commercial launches in the space sector in the coming months.
- Oraigo presented a neurotechnology solution dedicated to road safety. Its system combines brain activity and Artificial Intelligence to help prevent accidents associated with fatigue and microsleep. The company presented the project at the Italian Chamber of Deputies with Smet, closed a €1 million round in August 2025, and is now running pilot studies in Spain, Italy, Mexico and Japan.
- Robosan introduced a solution that brings robotics and AI into pre-analytical diagnostics. Its technology gives biological samples traceability, safety and operational value from the moment of collection through to arrival in the laboratory. After closing a seed round in December, the company started pilot projects with hospitals, private laboratories and biobanks, while also developing collaborations with Panasonic, INPECO and ESAMED.
- Dropper presented IoT sensors and AI algorithms designed to monitor people flows anonymously and improve space usage. Its technology is already applied in corporate, retail, event, education, museum and smart city environments. Among its recent use cases is ToMove4Future, a City of Turin programme using Wi-Fi and infrared sensors on buses to analyse passenger flows and support public transport planning.
Taken together, these projects showed how innovation is increasingly moving away from isolated technologies and towards integrated systems. Sensors, embedded electronics, data platforms, AI models, robotics, autonomous systems and energy storage are now evolving within the same development landscape.
The venture capital perspective and the execution gap
In the keynote session, Gianluca Galgano, Partner at EY, placed the discussion within the broader context of a venture capital market that is expanding, but remains concentrated.
In 2025, venture capital investment in Italy reached €1.488 billion, driven primarily by deep tech, which alone accounted for €413 million, followed by health and life sciences and software and digital. Investment remained concentrated in a limited number of sectors and companies: the top five rounds represented 46% of total investment, and capital was directed more towards later-stage companies than seed or pre-seed ventures. Geography also continued to matter, with Northern Italy, and Lombardy in particular, attracting around two thirds of total investment, equal to €932 million.
The first four months of 2026 confirmed a more complex but still active scenario. Despite geopolitical uncertainty, stable interest rates and a cautious investment climate, Italy recorded €419 million in venture capital investments, up 23% year on year, across 66 deals, with an average ticket of €6.4 million.
As Galgano noted, the potential is there, but execution remains the decisive issue. Investors need companies capable of scaling. Start-ups need credible growth strategies and international traction. Policy makers need to make the ecosystem easier to navigate.
This perspective helped reinforce a crucial point: many advanced technologies do not struggle because the original idea is weak. Their difficulties often emerge when moving from prototype to product, from laboratory performance to operational reliability, or from early adoption to industrial scale.
This is where engineering discipline becomes decisive. Testing, certification, production constraints, supply chain management, cybersecurity, maintenance and obsolescence planning are not final steps added at the end of the process. Very often, they are the conditions that determine whether a technology can truly enter the market.
A more connected model of industrial innovation
In high-tech manufacturing, innovation is increasingly distributed. Internal R&D remains essential, but it is no longer the only source of progress. Academic research, specialist partners, start-ups and venture-backed companies are all contributing to the technologies that will shape future products and systems.
The ability to connect these different sources of innovation with industrial capabilities has already become a competitive factor. Through Eletech and Elevo, that connection becomes part of an ongoing industrial process. It creates a channel through which new technologies can be identified, assessed and developed inside a technical environment already oriented towards reliability, scalability and long-term product management.
For deep tech start-ups, this means operating in a context where innovation is not judged only on novelty, but also on feasibility, robustness and future applicability.
From technological promise to industrial use
The Elevo Showcase made this approach tangible. It brought together start-ups working on very different technologies, yet all facing the same broader transition: moving from innovation potential to industrial use.
For established companies, this kind of environment offers a clearer view of where technology is heading and how new solutions may be integrated into future products, services or processes. For emerging companies, it provides access to engineering, industrial and regulatory experience that can support the maturation of their solutions.
Within this exchange, open innovation becomes a practical method of development. The next generation of high-tech products will be more connected, more data-driven and more dependent on continuous evolution. Building them will require not only direct access to emerging technologies, but also the capability to make those technologies reliable, secure and scalable.