In March 2000 the first spin-off company of Politecnico, called TRE (TeleRilevamento Europa), was founded by DEI members (authors of a patent on satellite-borne radar imaging) with the mission of producing technology for natural risk prevention.
In the same year, the Department signed the first contract for the commercial exploitation of a Politecnico’s patent. The patented technique for the computer-aided development of Web applications is licensed to Web Models, the second spin-off company of the Politecnico.
After these initiatives, the Politecnico opened the Business Accelerator, today Polihub, an incubator for start-ups managed by the Fondazione Politecnico in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan and more spin-offs have been established. The full list can be found in the "Industry area" of this web site.