Obloo Ventures is the venture capital operator specializing in deeptech, which already has several investments under its belt in the computational sciences sector, and on the occasion of MIND’s Innovation week it organized a meeting with experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs including Barbara Caputo of the Turin Polytechnic, Enrico Prati of the CNR and University of Milan, Roberto Siagri of Rotonium, and Victor Savevski of Humanitas, to delve into technological innovations in the future of computing, industrial applications, and the ecosystem of startups operating in the sector.
The future of computing, the set of hardware, software and application innovations and technologies enabled by computation, has the innovative potential to meet the grand challenges of the coming years: quantum computing promises to solve problems exponentially faster than the tools available today, with revolutionary spin-offs in various fields including cryptography, materials science and pharmaceutical research. At the same time, AI models and computing power are doubling every six months, a necessary condition to support the development of increasingly high-performance solutions. These technologies find application in many areas, from combating climate change to health care, from monitoring critical infrastructure to the new frontiers of aerospace, and are attracting increasing investment. In this scenario, Europe is positioning itself as a pole of excellence in computational sciences (as we have also written about nuclear fusion), and Italy has the potential to take a prominent role globally: it is the seventh country in the world for scientific publications in the field and fourth in terms of endowment of large computational infrastructures. Pivotal to this new industrial revolution are startups, particularly those working in the area of transforming the results of basic research into products serving various industries.
“The value of the expected investments gives a tangible measure of the impact that the future of computing will have in the coming years. The greatest impact will be in industrial applications: Climate tech, industrial manufacturing, cybersecurity, aerospace and the pharmaceutical industry are just some of the sectors that will be disrupted by the results coming from research in computational sciences. In Italy, there are many of the conditions necessary to seize this opportunity, from highly qualified human capital to the quality of scientific production and the technological and infrastructural endowment, but to express this potential it is necessary to promote and further develop the venture capital ecosystem and technology transfer,” states in a note Misal G. Memeo, partner of Obloo Ventures who speaking with Startupbusiness adds how the project will also soon have a new form capable of combining the need for demanding capital with that of having a structure capable of investing in an agile way and involving the industry. To date, Obloo Ventures has managed two funds: a €40 million fund together with Vertis and a €27 million fund in collaboration with CDP Venture Capital’s spacetech vehicle and has closed a total of 16 deals.
Specifically, Obloo Ventures is a co-investor and entrepreneurial partner of Galaxia, CDP Venture Capital’s National Technology Transfer Hub in Aerospace, and operates in three prevalent sectors: aerospace, computational science, and energy and sustainability.
The Obloo Ventures team created Deepscover, a proprietary methodology for turning scientific research results into products, services and startups with high industrial and financial impact. Deepscover plans to accompany the investment with test bed and development infrastructure: to this end, Obloo Ventures has agreements with CINECA to develop an ecosystem of startups in the computational field around the Leonardo HPC, and with Lean Experience Factory, an integrated digital model factory.
The sector is increasingly attracting the interest of public and private investors. Venture capitalists are investing heavily in artificial intelligence (46 billion euros), followed by quantum computing, where there is about 1.2 billion euros invested, with an additional 40 billion euros in global government funding over the next ten years (source: State of Quantum 2024 Crunchbase). In Europe, both private and institutional investors are very active: in 2024, between private and public funds, 200 billion has been allocated for AI and 134 from the Digital Recovery and Resilience Plan budget (source: European Commission, March 2024). On a global scale, private, government, and venture capital investments will enable a Future of Computing market reaching 500 billion by 2030.
Europe ranks first globally in the number of graduates in quantum subjects: with 135,511 students graduating in 2020, the 27 EU countries surpassed India (where 82,110 graduated), China (57,693) and the U.S. (45,087) (source: Quantum Technologies Public Policies in Europe, 2023 on 2020 data). Scientific publications in computer science in 2022 were 150,619 in the EU, a figure second only to China’s 182,843 (source: Scimago Dattabase, April 2024). In this ranking, Italy is seventh globally and in Europe is surpassed only by Germany (27,133) and the United Kingdom (25,805). In terms of computational infrastructure, Europe also excels with 48.8 million HPC cores (compared with 40.1 in the U.S., 22.6 in China and 11.4 in Japan-source: top500.org, April 2024); of these 4.4 million are in Italy, which ranks fourth globally.
The most promising technologies and startups:artificial intelligence, data science, quantum computing and neuromorphic technologies are among the most relevant areas of research today. After the explosion of generative AI, there has been a further acceleration of investment in this area. Among the most promising technologies in computing are edge computing, quantum and optical computers, and data storage by DNA molecules. As for software, XAI (explainable AI, i.e., the set of processes and methods that enable human users to understand the results generated by machine learning algorithms), DevOps (development + operation: software development methodology that aims at the integration of developers and IT operations people for the rapid and efficient development of products and services), foundational models of AI and machine learning, and cybersecurity are the most attractive areas of research in the context of the future of computing.
Industrial applications are diverse, ranging from automotive (perfecting autonomous driving and battery optimization) to financial services (risk optimization personalized services) to drug discovery.
There are already several startups in Italy proposing innovative solutions in these areas based on artificial intelligence and other computational technologies.
“For more than 15 years, the Obloo Ventures team has been investing in deep tech and directly in proof of concept with research groups. Looking at the portfolio of startups we have created, almost half have been and are companies related to the future of computing. That is why we are building an innovation ecosystem for this strategic sector, providing startups not only with capital, but with all the necessary elements for their birth and development, starting with infrastructure and industry partners,” says Nicola Redi, who together with Roberto Della Marina is managing partner of Obloo Ventures.
Startups
Aindo founded by Daniele Panfilo, CEO, Sebastiano Saccani, head of research and development, Borut Svara, CTO in 2018 is a startup born from SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) in Trieste and is currently settled in Area Science Park in Padriciano campus. Aindo provides a generative AI-based technology solution that enables companies in all industries to responsibly generate synthetic data from real data. Aindo’s mission is to revolutionize the approach to synthetic data via AI by reconciling privacy with data equity and mobility for secure and quality analyses. Synthetic data represent a new technological paradigm: they are completely artificial and have the same statistical properties as real data; however, they are devoid of sensitive information and thus are able to protect privacy.
Sibylla Biotech is a preclinical stage company focused on the development of small molecules with functions as molecular degraders that interfere with the protein folding process. This unique mechanism of action is being used to find new therapies suitable for unmet medical needs and is powered by a proprietary technology platform that leverages computer simulations and AI. Sibylla ‘s technology is a unique and exclusive enabler of a new class of “full atoms” molecular simulations that consider the vector nature of protein folding and the interactions of the nascent protein chain with the cell’s ribosome. This approach allows Sibylla to rationally design small molecules that can induce degradation of the target by interfering with its folding process. With ongoing collaborations with Takeda Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical in the CNS area and an internal pipeline focused primarily on oncology, Sibylla is currently preparing this new type of degraders for the clinical phase. The startup is led by Lidia Pieri, CEO together with Giovanni Spagnolli, CTO, Emiliano Biasini advisor, Pietro Faccioli advisor, Maria Letizia Barreca advisor, Graziano Lolli advisor.
Mespac conducts meteomarine campaigns to support offshore wind field development projects to predict the energy produced at each site by measuring wind intensity through instrumentation installed at sea in an extreme environment over a long period of 3-4 years. The startup uses satellite data from different constellations and artificial intelligence algorithms to increase geographic and temporal coverage and offer a weather campaign software service that is just as accurate and faster and less expensive than traditional weather campaigns. In this way, facilities can be implemented and made operational in less time. The startup founders’ deep understanding of physical wind and wave patterns has made it possible to extract useful information from satellite data for those who develop, build, operate, and own offshore wind facilities. The Mespac team is made up of Andrea Gulisano, CEO; Giuseppe Giorgi, CTO; Giulia Cervelli, meteomar model expert; Edoardo Pasta, data processing and artificial intelligence expert; and Giuliana Mattiazzo, advisro on technology transfer.
Infrastructure, especially in developed countries, is reaching, or has already reached, its structural useful life and may be affected by natural hazards and risks also related to climate change. Traditional monitoring systems using inspections or sensors are not always usable and do not present historical data, focus on the work and do not monitor surrounding elements such as the ground. In addition, time and cost are major constraints in infrastructure monitoring. Titan4 helps public and private companies assess and monitor from space the movements of the earth’s surface and understand the health of assets and infrastructure quickly and easily, through software that uses radar, optical and multi-spectral satellite data and integrates it with artificial intelligence. Titan4 monitors highways, tunnels, dams, and distribution networks and is built by Giovanni Quacquarelli CEO, Fracesco Cruciani CTO, and Stefano Cruciani advisor.
Traditional artificial intelligence neural networks are built on the assumption of unlimited resources, resulting in networks that are often too complex and high-performing for the user’s desired ends. Existing and available models are inefficient because they are not designed and optimized for the client’s specific hardware and require training on labeled data. Focoos AI has developed AI algorithms that design the optimal neural network for each client’s needs and for each type of hardware, and then train it on unlabeled data. Focoos AI reduces the cost and energy consumption of implementing neural networks by making them usable even in extreme environments, such as aboard satellites, for image analysis that allows selected and already processed information to be transmitted to the ground. The CEO of the startup is Antonio Tavera who works together with Fabio Cermelli CTO, Giuseppe Avetra CRO, Carlo Masone CPO and Barbara Caputo chairman.
Many neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders currently fall under the same diagnostic label, although they actually have different biological causes. QuantaBrain succeeds in detecting complex biomarkers, biological indicators related to a specific disease, in brain regions with atypical functioning. Specifically, using a functional MRI image processing method, QuantaBrain’s proprietary algorithm identifies unique features of an individual’s brain activity that relate to how oxygen is distributed and consumed in the brain. This results in the possibility of defining the best individualized treatment, making the diagnostic procedure more effective, rapid and objective. The resting-state functional MRI examination the patient must undergo lasts 1 minute, is safe, and is noninvasive. Among its countless fields of application, QuantaBrain has chosen to focus initially on the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), an extremely heterogeneous condition that is difficult to detect and for which early diagnosis is crucial given that the brain’s ability to remodel itself and learn new skills, neural plasticity, peaks in the first year of life and declines thereafter. The CEO of QuantaBrain is Elisa Ferrari, the CTO is Pietro Carra, and advisors include Hanna Teichmann who comes from MMI.
Quantum computing in the coming years will evolve from its current prototypical stage to become a disruptive technology. However, at this stage of development there are still engineering obstacles that make both the compilation of quantum software and the error handling of quantum hardware by middleware too computationally expensive. Qbrain has developed a cloud suite called Qortex and distributed as a SaaS product that optimizes the performance of quantum hardware so that it can reach its full potential.Specifically, Qortex provides the power of proprietary artificial intelligence models via API calls with the aim of making efficient use of quantum resources and is able to interface with all major quantum computing platforms offering the performance of tomorrow’s quantum computers today. The fields of application are many and independent of the market sector. Indeed, Qbrain’s suite is capable of optimizing quantum algorithms aimed at solving financial, logistical, chemical or machine learning problems. Paolo Arletti is the CEO, Marco Maronese the CTO, Lorenzo Moro head IA, and the advisors are Enrico Prati and Olivia Nicoletti. (Photo by Bogdan C Rogulin on Unsplash)
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