(Finance) – “As system operators, in Snam we can clearly appreciate how innovation is no longer carried out in the vertical silos of company departments but in a more open spacewhich is produced as a result of the collaboration between corporates, startups, and other types of entities, such as universities. In this context, Snam operates as a sort of system integrator which, by coordinating internal and external resources, coming for example from the world of start-ups, triggers dynamics of applied R&D, venture building and innovative sourcing”. Thus the Chief strategy and technology officer of Snam Claudio Farinawho spoke at the EY Venture Capital Talk 2025 to talk about climate tech as an opportunity for growth and competitiveness.
“In the company – explained Farina – innovation is the strategic lever that helps us decarbonise the Group’s activities and enable the transition of the System. There are two fundamental fronts: the proven innovation, to optimize processes with data driven technologies, mostly digital and increasingly focused on artificial intelligence, and theopen innovation, immersed in the R&D ecosystem and essentially aimed, on multiple levels of the supply chain, at the development of green molecules, with challenges that concern increasingly advanced solutions linked to production and storage”.
According to Farina, the relationships between a structured corporate like Snam and a startup can be complex but there are tools to make them work, such as “agile contractual forms, designed not only to be able to complete the identified projects, but also to do so in a mutually advantageous way: Snam can thus obtain solutions suited to its needs, while startups are able to adapt their output to a real market need, benefiting from skills systemic on assets, markets, regulations and project engineering and execution capabilities, which can facilitate the adoption and scalability of technologies deriving from the world of startups”.