Aeroporti di Roma has partnered with venture capital investment company Lventure Group to implement a Proof of Concept (PoC) experimentation programme. The programme will be developed in the first airport incubation programme in Italy, which will open early 2022 at Rome Fiumicino Airport.
The goal of the PoCs programme is to establish a co-creation process between selected startups and ADR to test their innovative products and services within the airport ecosystem. The startups 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 synergy between startups and the company’s business units.
LVenture Group’s role will be to manage the experimentation process, providing startups with its methodology and know-how in enterprise development in the early stages, based on a track record of over 120 accelerated startups.
The programme consists of two phases – set-up and delivery.
The set-up phase will last one month and consists of defining all the aspects 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.
Experts from ADR will provide the know-how necessary to support startups in the design phase. This will be followed by the delivery phase, which consists of about four intensive months of PoC development, in which the typical methodologies of LVenture Group’s acceleration programmes will be adopted.
Startups that have solutions in the following six challenges can participate in the 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 and digital passenger services; automation of processes or controls within the airport; and omnichannel commerce.
Emanuele Calà, Vice President of Innovation & 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 cooperation to achieve energy and digital transition goals of the airports of Fiumicino and Ciampino. Today, we are ready to engage startups 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, commented: “We are proud to collaborate with Aeroporti di Roma in the realisation of their Open Innovation strategy, providing our experience in the development of startups 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.”
ADR also recently launched an open call for ideas, inviting startups to propose ideas and projects to redefine the use of airport infrastructure, especially pertinent in light of the radical changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
