Independent advisory for those who must decide on a technology they don't know well enough.
I don't hand over an opinion or a blunt verdict. I take technology claims and break them down into their fundamental components, then return a map of the residual uncertainty — before you invest, acquire, sign, or build something that has to hold up for real.
Decision-makers need to see the real risk, not just the potential.
Technical Due Diligence
For those looking at a deeptech startup or a frontier technology who sense that the story is compelling, but the numbers deserve to be questioned. An independent report that falls in love not with the idea, but with the rigour behind it.
For those who invest in deeptech and in the futureIndependent Technology Review
For those who must bring an industrial technology into a real plant. To understand whether what works on paper and in brochures is compatible with their own reality.
For those adopting or changing industrial technologyESG Claim Review
For those who must prove that a sustainability claim is not just well-written narrative. To understand whether the declared emissions, consumption and trade-offs hold up technically, before someone asks the same questions from the other side of the table.
For those who must prove the technical soundness of an ESG claimFounder Session · First Read
For those with an idea or a technology still under construction, who want to understand where the reasoning breaks before presenting it to an investor. Not a due diligence: a direct conversation with someone who knows what technical people ask — and doesn't spare the uncomfortable questions.
For those still at the idea stage who need to know what doesn't hold upThe reasoning behind the report
Every technology claim lives on conditions that must all be true simultaneously: the chemistry, the physics, the scale, the intellectual property, the economics, the ESG narrative. I take technology claims, dismantle them down to the last screw and reassemble them until the breaking point appears. I don't look for confirmations: I look for the first place where it stops working.
Five independent questions, one honest picture.
The state of each axis is determined by its critical node, never by an average. An average is anaesthetic: it hides exactly the information the method is looking for — where the system breaks first. The client does not receive a synthetic score: they receive a decision map that shows which axes hold, which are under tension, and which fracture.
A concrete example is worth more than any description of the method.
Extract from a sample report on an anonymised case: an e-methanol-from-CO₂ technology assessed at Pre-Series A stage.
"65% yield on an industrial module, competitive cost at €X/kg, modular scalable process, negative carbon footprint."
Four conditions that must hold together, not one at a time.
The investment is not justifiable today. It becomes so only after the defensibility of the catalyst is clarified and a targeted pilot campaign resolves the thermal and scale bottleneck. The method does not say "no": it says "not now, and here is exactly what must happen for me to say yes with technical conscience."
Read the full report (in Italian) →Four perimeters, one discipline.
Technical Due Diligence
Complete technical assessment of the claims of a deeptech startup or technology, commissioned by those who must decide whether to invest. The report returns the state of five independent axes, with precise localisation of the critical node for each non-robust axis. Not an invest/don't-invest judgement: a navigable decision map.
Independent Technology Review
Comparative and practical assessment of mature technologies available on the market, before purchase, licensing or adoption. The focus is not on the laboratory but on real compatibility with the client's operating context: scale, feedstock, plant integration, adoption risks. The report doesn't say what to do. It says what to verify before signing.
ESG Claim Review
Technical assessment focused on the ESG axis alone: verifying whether the declared sustainability claim holds on the merits, not just whether it formally complies with a reporting standard. Emissions, consumption, supply chain and trade-offs are measured, not merely evoked. Where relevant, the claim is compared against reference frameworks (GRI, ISO 14040/14044, ISO 14067) and, on request, against EU Taxonomy criteria.
Founder Session · First Read
Before an idea becomes an MVP or a slide in front of an investor, it needs a direct conversation with someone who has seen R&D from the inside. It is not a due diligence — at this stage there is no data to verify yet, there is reasoning to put to the test. The session reads the basic plausibility of the scientific mechanism, gives a first qualitative read of the market and the ESG axis, and identifies the riskiest assumptions. The founder leaves with a map of the questions a technical investor will ask first.
When to choose what
| Technical Due Diligence | Independent Technology Review | ESG Claim Review | Founder Session | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You are assessing | A deeptech startup or technology for an investment | A mature technology to purchase or license | A specific sustainability claim, your own or a supplier's | An idea or technology still pre-MVP |
| The decision is | Invest / don't invest | Buy / integrate / sign a contract | How to prove or verify the declared sustainability | Whether to build, how to present to an investor |
| The claim is | The founder's or scientific team's | The supplier's or vendor's | Your own or a supplier's/partner's | The founder's, still forming |
| The focus is on | Scientific fundamentals and scalability | Operational compatibility with your context | Technical soundness of the ESG claim | Coherence of the reasoning, first critical questions |
| Who commissions | Funds, accelerators, family offices | SMEs, R&D managers, entrepreneurs | Funds, SMEs, startups | Founders |
| Typical timeline | 1–4 weeks | 1–4 weeks | 1–2 weeks | A single 4–5 hour session |
Petricca Advisors does not produce legal opinions, financial valuations or investment recommendations.
In domains where there is an overlap with proprietary activities — dehydration/drying, protein recovery from agricultural waste, catalyst cleaning — the conflict is declared before the engagement, not after. In case of conflict, the engagement is not accepted.
Fees vary according to the complexity of the perimeter. The structure is always communicated before the engagement, never after. A fixed fee for the defined perimeter, with no success fee or incentives tied to the outcome of the investment.
Flavio Petricca
A chemist by training. I assess deeptech technologies for investment funds and industrial companies with the same rigour with which I help build, scale and run them. When I look at a plant or a claim, I don't see just a promise: I see the physics, the materials and the people who will have to make it work every day.
Education and research
A dual specialisation in Chemical Sciences and in Environmental Change and Global Sustainability at the University of Milan, with training in Life Cycle Assessment, environmental economics, ESG, sustainability accounting and advanced data analysis. I have worked on nanostructured materials and their applications, combining chemistry with a path in Design Thinking (HEC Paris) and international R&D management: where the technical dimension meets the strategic and operational one.
Operational experience
Before founding Petricca Advisors I assessed pioneering technologies at Aliteco AG in Switzerland: a privileged vantage point on what distinguishes a solid claim from a well-presented promise. As founder of Pherkard Tech, I lead an internal R&D team and coordinate collaborations with international experts on the development of proprietary technologies (TVI and REFIR) in industrial drying and protein recovery.
I don't assess technologies from a desk: I watch them being born, take them to scale and measure their impact when they stop being slides and become steel, valves and production shifts.
Structural separation
Petricca Advisors and Pherkard Tech are structurally separate entities. Overlapping domains are declared before every engagement. If a technology falls into a conflict area, the client knows immediately: no ambiguity, no double hat.
A first technical conversation
A free, no-commitment technical briefing. It serves to understand whether the project falls within the perimeter of Petricca Advisors and which service fits it best.
Typically 45 minutesProcess chemistry · Advanced materials · Cleantech · Pharma · Agrifood · Wastewater · Any deeptech where the critical question is scientific or industrial
I do not accept engagements inIndustrial dehydration/drying, protein recovery from agricultural waste, catalyst cleaning — for conflict with the activities of Pherkard Tech.
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