Founding Principles
We started with the belief that we could do European research projects better. That each project is an opportunity and that if someone pushed just a little bit harder and took care of the exploitation side within project consortia, that the true value of a project wouldn’t be the project itself – but everything that happens afterwards. With this founding principle, the idea to create R2M was born. Equally important and apart from research, we wanted to make waves in the market(s) themselves bringing impact to the issues and topics we care about. It is for this reason that the company is also vigorously involved in consulting, technology transfer, training and business development.
Launch
The company was launched on 7th of June 2012 in the City of Milan.
When launching, we considered being formalized as university startup and we considered external investor funding in exchange for part of the company. We instead decided against these options and opted to be independent and self-funded (bootstrapping). We applied for and gained the title of “innovative startup” (Italian program). We were open for business. In the early days, nobody took a salary and each cost was carefully considered. We “hot desked,” rented parts of an office, later rented a full office and then moved into a technology park. Our first strategic client was ProAir and first national project success. Our first paid invoice was IK4 IKERLAN. Our first supporting program was Enterprise Ireland. You never forget the organizations that help put you on the map. There were also a couple that hesitated to partner with a startup or blocked new entrants. You never forget those either!
Zero to One
Our mission is to empower the development of technologies, products and services and conduct business development across sectors and markets to carry them from “Zero to One.” Although we have a large focus on sustainability as a societal challenge that must be solved, our work and ethos apply to almost any area of Research and Innovation and have us involved in ICT, engineering, robotics and additive manufacturing and other fields at the cutting edge of science. In parallel, we aim to act as an agent for innovation and new technologies linked directly to the market in our areas of activity.
Why Us?
In truth, more research, innovation and technology transfer firms like R2M are needed and that is one of the reasons we are busy creating more R2M branches and growing the branches we have aggressively. We enable the young engineers and scientists that work with us to take control of their own careers and we empower the organizations we partner with to implement innovation-based business transformations.
We are a young firm and the energy, dedication and drive that is typically associated with young companies is certainly present at R2M. We pride ourselves on exceeding expectations and delivering deep value.
With respect to what we do, several of our unique selling points are: