ROME (AFP) - The co-defendant in Amanda Knox's retrial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has set up a company to review cold cases and make money from them, Italian media reported on Thursday.

Mr Raffaele Sollecito, who is completing a degree in information technology, has registered "Experience Teller" in Switzerland with capital of 100,000 Swiss francs (S$130,000), the reports said.

"I think this entrepreneurial idea is brilliant and clearly it is very linked to his personal experience," Mr Roberto Segala, Mr Sollecito's university lecturer in Verona in northern Italy, was quoted as saying.

"The idea is to collate large amounts of information on unresolved cases in to provoke large-scale interest and provide relevant consultancy in various fields to resolve them, including through information technology," he said.

The revenue would come from selling books and films about the cases.

Former lovers Mr Sollecito and Ms Knox served four years in Italian prisons before being acquitted on appeal in 2011. But they now face a new trial after Italy's highest court struck down that acquittal earlier this week.

Both were students in Perugia at the time of Ms Kercher's murder in 2007.