Airport operator Aeroporti di Roma has concluded its second Runway to the Future acceleration program for startups with a ‘results day’ event.
Selected startups
The event was held at the Innovation Hub of Aeroporti di Roma, and was attended by the 12 startups selected from the 116 applicants to the second “Call4Ideas”. These included Aeroficial Intelligence (Austria), Argos AI (Turkey), Auxilia (France), DesignHubz (UAE), Essential Aero (USA), Guimu Robot (China), Hamsa ID (Netherlands), Matroid (USA), Proteso (Italy), ReLearn (Italy), Wintics (France), ZestIOT (India).
At the event, the ADR’s innovation cabin crew (ICC) team explained the journey made over the past six months by the startups in the eight macro-areas to the program’s partners – Autogrill, Aws, Enav, Eurocontrol and Terna.
These eight areas included: predictive maintenance; enhanced terminal processes; improved airside operations (improving aircraft turnaround); environmental impact (reducing environmental impact and energy consumption); community and sustainability (creation of value for the local community); passenger experience (improving quality for passengers); commercial opportunities (increasing sales opportunities); and disruptive solutions (that can be applied to our airport smart city).
Investment opportunities
During the program, the selected startups had the opportunity to work at and develop their projects within the airport with the support of ADR’s innovation team and ICC’s business mentor. According to the airport operator, many of these airport projects were based on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
At the end of the program, an evaluation phase will begin for potential investment by ADR Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund launched in February 2023 and fully owned and supported by ADR itself. The fund already has a portfolio of two startups: Ottonomy, a startup with autonomous robots capable of making contactless deliveries in both indoor and outdoor environments, and Assaia, which has developed software combining artificial intelligence and computer vision to provide airports and airlines with complete visibility of airport turnaround operations, enabling them to predict problems and automate processes.
Emanuele Calà, innovation and quality vice president at ADR, commented, “We are thrilled with the success of the second ‘Runway to the Future’ program. After the first program that saw 50% of the projects brought into operation in the complex airport machine, the collaboration with startups and partners of excellence has allowed us to identify further innovative solutions that will contribute to improving our airport performances, which is increasingly sustainable and passenger-oriented.
“The success of the Runway to the Future program confirms ADR’s commitment to the development of a state-of-the-art airport, capable of responding to the needs of a continuously evolving industry. For this purpose, ADR set up a corporate venture capital company (ADR Ventures) in 2023 to support the growth of the most promising startups and accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions. Today’s Results Day was a unique opportunity to share the progress made with industry stakeholders and create the conditions to further develop concrete and business-driven innovation that can make available to our passengers the advantages of the airport of the future.”
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