Aeroporti di Roma and Lventure Group to launch airport incubation scheme

Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the company that manages the Rome Fiumicino and Ciampino airports, and Lventure Group, a Venture Capital holding listed on the stock exchange and one of the main start-up accelerators at European level, have signed a collaboration to implement the programme of experimentation (Proof of Concept) to be developed in the first airport Innovation Hub in Italy, which will be inaugurated at the beginning of 2022 at Leonardo Da Vinci, Fiumicino International Airport (FCO), with a space of 650m² at Terminal 1.

The goal of the Proofs of Concept (PoCs) is to establish a co-creation process between the selected start-ups and ADR to test their innovative products and services within the airport ecosystem. The start-ups will have access to ADR’s assets and resources, which will support the testing of solutions, the achievement of objectives, and the development of a synergistic relationship between start-ups and the company’s Business Units.

LVenture Group will manage the experimentation process, providing start-ups with its methodology and know-how in enterprise development in the early stages, based on a track record of over 120 accelerated start-ups.

The path consists of two phases: Set-up and Delivery.

The ‘Set-Up’ phase, lasting one month, which consists of defining all the aspects that orbit around the individual PoCs, from the introduction of the stakeholders involved, to the presentation of the assets made available by ADR and their methods of use. ADR’s experts will provide the know-how necessary to support start-ups in the design phase. This will be followed by the ‘Delivery Phase’, about four intensive months of PoC development, in which the typical methodologies of LVenture Gorup’s acceleration programmes will be adopted.

All start-ups with innovative solutions in the six challenges identified by ADR can participate in this programme: improving flight punctuality and increasing airport capacity, ‘data driven’ systems for real time planning and management of the terminal and airside areas, reduction of energy consumption or increase of energy from renewable sources, ‘Passenger digital experience’, digital passenger services that enrich their experience, automation of processes or controls within the airport, and ‘Omnichannel commerce’, dedicated offers that can be purchased not only at the point of sale.

Emanuele Calà, Vice President of Innovation and Quality of Aeroporti di Roma commented: “Together with LVenture Group, we are entering the executive phase of the Open Innovation strategy, based on the desire to create an ecosystem of co-operation to achieve energy transition goals and digitalising the airports of Fiumicino and Ciampino. We are ready to engage start-ups by investing in their ideas within the Fiumicino Incubation HUB, not only in economic terms but above all in terms of know-how and skills, promoting and encouraging the development and growth of new companies and entrepreneurs, generating a phenomenon of contamination from which the entire national airport system benefits.”

Antonella Zullo, Head of Open Innovation of LVenture Group said: “We are proud to collaborate with Aeroporti di Roma in the realisation of their Open Innovation strategy, providing our experience in the development of start-ups in the initial phases and in the creation and management of the Hubs, the physical platforms that increase the influential rate functional to their growth. The innovative solutions of the start-ups will play a central role in the transformation of infrastructures at the service of the passenger experience and sustainability, amongst the great challenges of the future”.