Our History

Glass to Power is a Spin-off of the University of Milan Bicocca based on the scientific research of Professors Sergio Brovelli and Francesco Meinardi and founded thanks to the commitment of Management Innovation, a scouting and consultancy company for technological innovation, to transform this extraordinary innovation into a real market product. In a little time some of the major players in the business industry and finance gathered around this idea to create the new company, acquiring the exclusive patent license, with the aim of developing the whole industrial research and development necessary to quickly design and produce an industrial product.

The Foundation

Glass to Power is spin-off of University of Milano Bicocca and was founded on September, 28 2016 with an initial capital of 300.000 €. The constitutive assembly of the company was held at University of Milano Bicocca, at the presence of the Dean of University of Milano Bicocca Professor Maria Cristina Messa.

Shareholders’ agreements

SetteGreen Award

The transparent photovoltaic window of Glass to Power won the SetteGreen Awards 2016, the award promoted by the weekly “Sette” of the Corriere della Sera, aimed at Italian excellence in innovation and environmental sustainability.
The prizes for the 2016 edition were presented by the director of the magazine Pier Luigi Vercesi during a ceremony held on November, 23 at the “Triennale” in Milan and conducted by Filippa Lagerback. To collect the prestigious recognition, the inventors: Professors Francesco Meinardi and Sergio Brovelli, fellows of the Material Science department of the University of Milano Bicocca and respectively President of the Board and President of the Scientific Council of Glass to Power.

R&D 100 Award

On November,9 2016 Glass to Power’s photovoltaic windows won the Special Recognition Award in the category Green Technology at the R&D100 Awards. It had been the first time for an Italian research to get this recognition in the 54-year history of the R&D100 Awards, which are considered by the international scientific community as the Golden Globes of inventions and technology research. The R&D100 Awards were bestowed during the R&D 100 Conference 2016 held at Gaylord National Harbor & Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland (USA).

Six months later

The team of Glass to Power grows and three young emplyees are hired. The first panel of dimension 50×50 cm is produced. Testing of the photovoltaic panel on glass elevators’ surfaces starts in collaboration with KONE.

Capital increase

In May 2017 a capital increase was approved. Glass to Power is now evaluated at 1.5 M€, with a share ratio of 1 to 5 and a capital of 600,000 €. 10.9% of Glass to Power’s equity, equivalent to 183,750 €, was made available to new shareholders through crowdfunding. The campaign was launched on July, 6 and after less than two weeks the target was successfully reached.

Geneva Inventions

Glass to Power participated in the 45th International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva from March, 29 to April, 2 2017. During the Award ceremony, Glass to Power’s photovoltaic windows were awarded the Special Prize of the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Switzerland and the Gold Medal with special appreciation of the International Jury.

The Scientific Committee

In December 2018, during the last meeting of the Board of Directors, the scientific committee of Glass to Power was defined. The presidency was conferred to Sergio Brovelli, associate professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Milan Bicocca, an inventor of the technology and founder of the company. To Franco Meinardi, professor of Physics of Matter and inventor and founder, were added as members of the committee, eminent players of the scientific and academic world. Among them, there are Luigi Nicolais, professor emeritus of the University of Naples “Federico II”, Minister for reforms and innovations in public administration from 2006 to 2008 and President of the CNR from 2012 to 2016; Gianfranco Pacchioni Pro-Rector of the University of Milan Bicocca, Academic of the Lincei, member of the Academia Europaea and of the European Academy of Sciences and finally Lorenzo Pavesi, director of the Department of Physics at the University of Trento and of the NanoSciences laboratory.

The team grows

Since January 2018, two new researchers are part of Glass to Power’s team.

Company changes

On March 28th, Glass to Power’s shareholders’ meeting approved a major capital increase of the company and its transformation from a limited liability partnership to a joint stock company. Following the assessment made by BDO (Glass to Power’s financial advisor), the company, starting from an evaluation of € 9M pre-money, will reach an evaluation of € 11,250,000 acquiring €2,250,000on the market.

Patents’ ownership

Last June Glass to Power invested one million euros for the acquisition of the patents for the photovoltaic window from the University of Milano Bicocca.

Second capital increase

On July 5th the second equity crowdfunding campaign, started on May 15th, ended successfully for Glass to Power. The CrowdFundMe platform was used, which allowed Glass to Power to complete its capital increase of 2.250 million euros, collected by about 500 new investors in less than fifty days. It is a record for Italy: it is the first time that a crowdfunding campaign has reached and exceeded the 2 million euros threshold.

The NanoFarm in Rovereto

On 10 January the new headquarter of Glass to Power was opened at the Trentino Sviluppo Mechatronics Hub in Rovereto. At the beginning of 2018 Glass to Power had in fact presented to the Province of Trento a request for contributions for the NanoFarm project, linked to the development of photovoltaic windows. The request was approved in June 2018, with a loan of 1.1 million euros out of a total of 1.5 million.