Italian autonomous EV spin-out lands €38m pre-seed from heavyweight investors

Niulinx, a spin-off of Milan's Politecnico di Milano, has closed a €38m pre-seed round, the largest Italian investment in autonomous driving to date. The company is emerging from stealth for the first time after spinning out of the university's AIDA research group.

"Europe needs its own autonomous driving industry, built on its rules, values, and infrastructure," said Niulinx CEO Luca Foresti. "Niulinx will be the protagonist of this revolution."

Heavyweight cap table

Italian state-backed funds A2A and CDP Venture Capital co-led the round with €10m a piece. A2A's contribution marks the first direct startup investment by A2A Life Ventures, the energy group's corporate venture arm.

CDP participated through its €1bn artificial intelligence fund, launched in October 2024 with backing from Italy's Ministry of Enterprise. The fund targets AI companies with the potential to compete at European scale.

"Europe still lacks a player capable of competing at scale," said Alessandro Scortecci, director of direct investments at CDP. "Niulinx fills this gap with a differentiated approach and an ambitious growth strategy based on collaboration with local operators."

Impact Loop contacted CDP Venture Capital and Niulinx for comment. This article will be updated if they respond.

Co-investors in the round include Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Pirelli, AFL, VC Partners SGR, MOST, and Fondazione ICO Falck. Emilio Frazzoli, former CTO of nuTonomy and now a professor at ETH Zurich, joined as an angel investor alongside Stefano Bernardi.

EVs that drive themselves

Niulinx builds software that handles the full autonomous driving stack – letting a vehicle perceive its environment, plan a route, control itself, and be managed remotely as part of a fleet. In practice, this means an electric car that can drive itself to a user, drop them at their destination, and head autonomously to a charging point or the next customer. Little additional technical detail was disclosed.

The round arrives as European autonomous vehicle investment accelerates. UK-based Wayve closed a $1.2bn Series D in February, backed by Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and SoftBank Vision Fund. Meanwhile, Swedish self-driving truck firm Einride announced its plans to IPO in November at a $1.8bn valuation.

Niulinx plans to use the funding to secure regulatory approval to operate on European roads, grow its team from 60 to over 100 engineers, and roll out a franchising model with local operators across Europe, starting in Germany.