Pianeta Accelerator 2026

Pianeta Accelerator is an international acceleration program run by Factory Plus, with support from Fondazione Cariplo, Regione Lombardia, Principia, and UC Berkeley Skydeck. The call document is dated 2 September 2026. Applications close on 5 October 2026.

Selected startups join a six month program, from November 2026 to April 2027, based at MIND in Milan. Time with UC Berkeley is planned from November 2026 to January 2027, with at least three weeks in person in Berkeley. A demo day is set for April 2027.

Each selected startup receives a voucher of EUR 25,000, to be used only to buy acceleration services from Factory Plus. A linked fund may later invest at market terms. That investment is not a fixed award in this call. Applying is free. Documents may be in Italian or English.

Applicants must be a micro, small, or medium enterprise under EU Regulation 651/2014, Annex I, and must not fall under the exclusions in Article 1 of that regulation. The company needs an operational seat in Lombardy, or it must declare that it will open one and keep it for five years from the grant. At least one founder, top manager, director, or executive must be a student, former student, staff member, teacher, postdoctoral researcher, or visiting scholar of a University of California campus or Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or must hold a perpetual commercial license to technology from the Regents of the University of California or that laboratory. A startup without that link can, once selected, accept the Accelerating Careers in Entrepreneurship program, which pairs it with a Berkeley student intern. Employees of Fondazione Cariplo, Regione Lombardia, Factory Plus, Principia, and their subsidiaries cannot take part.

Apply on F6S with a pitch deck. The score covers market need, how new the solution is, technical feasibility, economic sustainability, quality, team skills and mix, and scalability. The minimum score for the regional voucher is 75 out of 100. Example sectors named in the call are Clean Tech, artificial intelligence, Bio and Health, and deep tech and chips, in hardware and software.