Rome, 17 June 2021 – CDP Venture Capital Sgr announces the start of the selection call for CyberXcelerator, a three-year acceleration programme dedicated to start-ups operating in the cybertech and artificial intelligence sector, supported by total investments of over 5 million euros. The launch of CyberXcelerator is part of the strategy of CDP National Accelerators Network, which is implemented in the main technology districts across the Italian territory to support the development of skills and entrepreneurship in the innovation sector.

CyberXcelerator will be managed by Startup Wise Guys, one of Europe’s most active Accelerators in collaboration with the University of Calabria through its TechNest incubator, and involves the presence of leading industrial partners including Leonardo, as the main partner, which will make available its skills and technologies for the selection, acceleration and investment phases of the start-ups selected in the early stage, identifying the technological issues of interest in order to build a national supply chain capable of supporting the country’s technological independence and the corporate partner Italgas, a leader in gas distribution, with over 73,000 kilometres of managed network and approximately 8 million users served. NTT DATA will be the Accelerator’s technology partner.

The total assets under management of CyberXcelerator will exceed 5 million euros, 2.5 million euros of which being allocated by the CDP Venture Capital Sgr Accelerators Fund together with Startup Wise Guys, for the acceleration phase, in addition to 2 million euros for the subsequent follow-ons, which are added to the 600 thousand euros made available by the industrial partners of the project.

The startups concerned will be able to apply from today on the website https://www.cyberxcelerator.com, to take in part in the selection of the programme, which will last 22 weeks and will be based in NTT DATA’s offices in Cosenza, the world’s third research pole in cybersecurity, after the one in Tokyo, Japan, and in Palo Alto, California, and at the facilities made available by the University of Calabria together with its incubator TechNest.

CyberXcelerator will select 30 Italian and international startups, which intend to open an office in Italy, with the possibility of accessing financial resources and an acceleration programme with over 250 mentors of the Startup Wise Guys network from all over the world.