Daniele Pucci was conducting research at IIT when he realized that the robots he was studying could become products. Not laboratory prototypes, but machines working in a warehouse, a factory, or a hospital ward. To turn that research into a company, he needed to stay close to the laboratory where it all began. He stayed at Erzelli.
In 2024, Generative Bionics was founded as a spin-off of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), based at the Erzelli Science and Technology Park. In less than two years, it has raised 70 million euros, presented GENE.01 at CES in Las Vegas, and in June 2026, it is bringing its robots to America.
What it does exactly
Generative Bionics develops humanoid robots based on what the company calls “Physical AI”: artificial intelligence designed to interact with the physical world, not just with data. The robots are designed for sectors where manual labor is repetitive and high-risk: manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
This isn’t applied science fiction. It is advanced robotic engineering with an already identified market: companies are looking for solutions to reduce risk in activities that people no longer want to do. GENE.01 is the concrete answer.
The link with the campus
The story of Generative Bionics would not be possible without IIT’s Center for Human Technologies (CHT), the research center that has been working at Erzelli for years on technologies for health, rehabilitation, and human-machine interaction. The scientific foundation of the company was born from that work.
Today, Generative Bionics occupies its own spaces within the park, just a few hundred meters from IIT-CHT. Prototypes are developed and tested here. When the company heads to America in June, it will bring a technology built on this hill.
For GHT, the story of Generative Bionics answers a precise question: what happens when universities, research centers, and companies share the same location? The answer, in this case, is worth 70 million euros.
What’s next
Generative Bionics’ plan includes the industrialization of production in Genoa. The manufacturing plant remains in Italy. The city that saw the birth of the research could also become the place where the robots are mass-produced.
The story isn’t over. It’s just beginning.
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