The reporter, among the commitee of the fifth edition of the Gaetano Marzotto Prize, talks about the startup Proxentia, that was included in the EU program SME Istrument by Horizon 2020 (1.5millios check). The author says that Proxentia “could save lives and has an outlet: the world market of safety tests for foods intended for human feeding is estimated between 2 and 3.5 billions of dollars per year”.

I declare immediately my conflict of interest: as jury member of the fifth edition of the Gaetano Marzotto Prize I contributed to award Matteo Salina, CEO and co-founder of Proxentia. Actually, in my notes Proxentia was second place, but that’s why committee exists. It turns out that my collegues where right, since the same company was admitted from the EU to the SME instrument program by Horizon 2020 (1.5 million check). Now, telling about Proxentia is not immediate: it is not a social network nor, as popular as they are now, some sort of Uber-like company. It is a technological company with patents and a market: to be short, we know that, when a stock of milk or cereals is delivered to a factory, tests need to be run on random samples and such tests require time. Salina and partners patented a way to do it in twenty minutes and on site. I know, it’s not as thrilling as designing a three-dimensional search engine, but it could save lives and it has an outlet: the world market of safety tests for foods intended for human feeding is estimated between 2 and 3.5 billions of dollars per year”.
msideri@corriere.it