Lipomo-based Involve, an Italian company that develops stratospheric balloon technology for real-time Earth monitoring, telecommunications, and infrastructure, closed a €2.5 million seed round after 30 successful commercial launches and extensive testing.
The investment is led by Earlybird Venture Capital, one of Europe’s leading VCs, supported by Takeoff, the accelerator dedicated to aerospace and advanced of the CDP Venture Capital National Network, co-invested by Unicredit, Fondazione CRT and Plug and Play which manages it also operations.
Also participating in the round is TLI Space, a structure specialized in venture capital investments in the space and technology sector, promoted by Cenciarini & Co, a holding company for early-stage ventures. The round is supplemented by €500k in convertible loans.
This round represents a major milestone for Involve, which also became the first Italian startup chosen by Earlybird-X.
Earlybird-X partner Dr. Philipp Semmer, commented: “We are excited to partner with Jonathan, Claudio and the entire Involve Team in building the next generation of high-altitude balloon platforms. The team convinced us with their execution capabilities of gathering substantial initial traction with very little capital. Additionally, they were able to attract some of the leading heads in the space such as Alastair Westgarth. Involve will define a new category of earth observation technology, and we are happy to be part of the journey, alongside CDP and TLI Space.”
The space is the limit
Involve will use the funds to accelerate the development of its stratospheric balloon technology to achieve several technical milestones. These include enhancing flight duration, optimizing control systems through artificial intelligence, and expanding payload capacity.
The company also plans to grow its team with new hires in key areas such as aerospace engineering, software development, and data management teams. Additionally, Involve will continue to expand its international presence by strengthening existing partnerships and developing new ones, particularly in the surveillance, environmental monitoring, and telecommunications sectors.
“Our next step should be somewhere near Houston, USA,” Jonathan Polotto, CEO and Founder, said: “Here, for more than a month, I had the opportunity to develop contacts and do quite a bit of networking. This will be, very soon, our next step, thanks to our board member Alastair Westgarth and business developer Courtney Stadd, former Deputy Associate Administrator at NASA and ex-Director of Commercial Space at The White House”.
