Success Stories of Italy
Macrogen expands its operations in Milano.
Macrogen, mother company of Macrogen Europe B.V. is a South Korean precision medicine firm established in 1997. Today, the company is among the five main genome sequencing service providers in the world.
By choosing Milano from a shortlist of several European locations, the company decided to bet on the growing demand for genomics services coming from Italian customers and Italy’s willingness to gain a leading position in this field. The new office and laboratory space where DNA sequencing service is conducted for Italy customers, is about to be inaugurated at the UniMi Foundation, the incubation and technology transfer center of the University of Milano.
GemaTEG group, specialized in the development of thermoelectric systems for the recovery of waste heat from servers, following strong interest in its projects is redefining its development plans for the next two years. The aim is to strengthen the Perugia (Umbria) operational headquarter, with the recruitment of specialized resources and the increase of R&D partnerships with the main research centers at national level.
To facilitate the company’s objectives, the management has resolved to strengthen the Perugia operational headquarter, which demonstrates the willingness to reinforce and concentrate R&D activities in Italy where the Group recognizes a strong technical and specialist expertise. That is why it has been planned to increase the number of resources with different skills and knowledge in Perugia to triple the current number of employees over the next two years.
A new high-tech R&D entity, Sensoria Italia srl, opens for business in Italy.
Sensoria Health Inc. is a US-based company whose vision is The Garment is the Computer®.
Sensoria established its legal entity in Bergamo, Lombardia, in spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic situation in November of 2020, visited in person the New Steel incubator offices in the Campania Region and is now planning to open its first R&D office in Europe in Naples.
Thanks to the Smart&Start Incentive program, Sensoria is planning to hire engineers from the local vibrant ecosystem and further accelerate the development of its SDK and technology platform and product pipeline.
Sensoria Heath’s Italian investment represents its first European R&D center with the mission of developing its product line of biometric-sensing smart garments and artificial intelligence-connected software. Sensoria is looking forward to working and partnering with the textile, clothing, and fashion ecosystem in Italy.
Jaguar Health, Inc. is a US-based company focused on developing and commercializing proprietary plant-based human gastrointestinal pharmaceuticals from plants harvested responsibly from rainforest areas.
On March 12th, 2021, Jaguar Health’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Napo Pharmaceuticals, established its own wholly-owned subsidiary, Napo EU, in Milan, Italy with the mission to expand access to crofelemer in Europe (excluding Russia) to address significant unmet gastrointestinal medical needs.
The “Invest In Italy” team that involves the Italian Trade Agency and its office in San Francisco, California, in collaboration with the local investment agency Milano & Partners, supported Jaguar Health and Napo Pharmaceuticals throughout the process of establishing Napo EU in Milan, and with regard to the anticipated merger of Napo EU and Dragon SPAC. Further support is being provided for location scouting, hiring, and engagement with the local financial community.
The Bayer Group is in Italy under Bayer S.p.a. with its headquarter in Milan and a delegation in Rome. In 2018, Bayer invested € 11 mln in the production site of Garbagnate Milanese (MI) in the Industria 4.0 field. The Italian situation registered a turnover of € 1,029 mln in 2017, above 2,000 employees and 3 production sites with the most advanced systems in the world. The production potential is based on three industrial sites, with headquarters in Garbagnate Milanese, Segrate (MI) and Filago (BG). These industrial sites are international reference points for the most advanced productions capacities with the automation of processes, the use of cutting-edge technologies and constant innovation fueled by a policy of strong investments.
AVL and FEV - two top world companies in the powertrain engineering - invested in Emilia-Romagna with the support of the Regional Law for the Promotion of Investments (L.R. 14/2014) collaborating with local stakeholders and companies.
In 2017, AVL Italia opened in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia, a specialized R&D centre to collaborate with the top companies of the regional motor valley, investing almost € 10 mln (with a regional incentive of € 3,3 mln) and creating 52 additional full-time jobs.
In 2019, the FEV Group – present in Emilia-Romagna with a branch in Sant’Agata Bolognese since 2014 – has opened the first private laboratory of a foreign company inside the University of Bologna – the “Green mobility research lab” – that will develop predictive algorithms in smart vehicles. In the same year, the company started another investment in the region focused on Advanced Driver Assistance System that is hiring 22 new employees (18 of which graduated) with an investment of € 2,4 mln (with a regional incentive of € 1 mln).
The development of the Brindisi and Pomigliano D’Arco (Napoli) production sites; 2 R&D projects - divided between Piedmont, Campania and Apulia - and an increase of at least 100 new jobs.
These are the objectives of the new development contract presented by Avio Aero, a large company of the General Electric group, and approved by Invitalia, the National Development Agency.
The investment is expected to amount to € 77,8 mln, € 51 mln of which are for R&D activities and are the subject of a Development Agreement signed by the Mise and by the Piedmont, Campania, and Apulia Regions.
The maximum non-repayable grants, approved by Invitalia, amount to € 27,3 mln: € 22,5 mln granted by the Mise, € 1,8 mln by the Campania Region (MiSE-Region Framework Program Agreement), and € 3 mln by the Apulia Region. The Piedmont Region provides high-level training and research contracts for the employment inclusion of young people.
These investments, consistent with the National Industry 4.0 Plan, mainly focus on the development and industrialization of innovative products and processes, based on new technologies such as additive and advanced manufacturing, and industrial digitalization.
Invitalia has approved the development contract proposed by Hitachi Rail Italy, a large company in the railway sector, born in 2015 from the evolution of Ansaldo-Breda, and currently part of the Japanese Hitachi group. The total investment amounts to € 79,3 mln, € 26,1 mln of which granted by Invitalia.
In particular, € 49,7 mln are dedicated to the digital transformation of the plants in Pistoia, Naples and Reggio Calabria through interventions in line with the Industry 4.0 plan. This will make it possible to increase the production of high-speed trains, regional trains, trams and subways, destined to the main players of the Italian and foreign railway transport field.
The remaining € 29,6 mln will finance an R&D program that will be carried out together with 5 institutions: University of Florence, University of Cassino, University of Naples "Federico II", University of Salerno and CNR Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation.
The entire project will imply the creation of 409 new jobs: 169 in Pistoia, 190 in Naples and 50 in Reggio Calabria.
Ansett Aviation Training – the largest independent provider of training services with flight simulators at a global level – strengthens its European aviation training base at Malpensa, by creating the first flight simulator for the Bombardier CL-415 aircraft – better known as Canadair – the most used means for extinguishing fires.
Ansett’s investment was supported with € 17,4 mln by ITA – Italian Trade Agency, Promos-Invest in Lombardy and Invitalia. Ansett's global investment in Milan amounts to € 45 mln. The objective of the new flight simulator is to make it become a global point of reference in pilot training, for an aircraft whose incidents in the training phase statistically represent 50% of the total.
Nestle Food € 50 mln, 150 new jobs, 350 pizzas per minute and 3 new production lines. These are the numbers of the investment project which, thanks to the development contract and a specific program agreement, Nestlè Italia has granted for the Buitoni plant in Benevento, where developing the international frozen pizza hub.
The project aims to expand the production capacity of the existing plant (acquired by Nestlè in 1993) and introduce new technologies that will allow the production of three new frozen pizza lines for the Italian market, but above all for the European market.
All thanks to a 4.0 factory, with temperature-controlled warehouses, reduced emissions, 5,200 sqm of photovoltaic system and 100% guaranteed waste recycling. Also, the Campania Region contribution amounted to € 11,2 mln