Venice, Italy · Event The 4th International Summit on Non-Renewable and Renewable Energy (ISNRE2026), held on August 24-25, 2026 in Venice, brings together researchers, industry experts, policymakers and innovators around energy transition, renewable technologies, smart grids, storage and sustainability. The programme spans around 30 scientific sessions with plenary talks, keynotes, technical presentations and networking. Submitted via the site suggestion form.
Milan, Italy · Event Billed as Europe's largest AI event, at Fiera Milano Rho with 700+ speakers, 250+ AI exhibitors, and 25,000+ attendees. Strong for founders selling AI tooling into enterprise and meeting corporate innovation buyers.
Milan, Italy · Event Organisator Organizer of Italy's AI*Festival, an annual event hosted at Bocconi University in Milan bringing together AI researchers, startup founders, and industry leaders. The festival features keynotes, panel discussions, and demos exploring applied artificial intelligence, machine learning, and responsible AI development within Italy's growing tech ecosystem.
Milan, Italy · Event International AI festival in Italy connecting the Italian tech ecosystem with global markets through keynotes, demos, and pitch sessions. Attracts AI researchers, enterprise buyers, and investors exploring opportunities in Southern Europe. Valuable for AI startups seeking visibility in the growing Italian AI market and European expansion.
Turin, Italy · Startup AIKO develops flight-proven AI software that enables satellites and spacecraft to operate autonomously — detecting anomalies, replanning missions, processing payload data, and executing maneuvers without ground intervention. Founded in Turin in 2017 by Lorenzo Feruglio, AIKO became the first European company to demonstrate deep learning algorithms in orbit. The company's modular product suite (GENE for anomaly detection, OLIVER for onboard planning, CLEAR for payload processing, DANA for maneuvering) serves commercial operators and space agencies. With offices in Turin and Toulouse, AIKO has raised €7 million and is leading the ASIMOV proximity-operations project funded by the Italian Space Agency.
Milan, Italy · Startup Quantum software company relocated its global headquarters from Helsinki to Milan in May 2026, marking Italy's largest-ever quantum computing investment round of €18M. Develops quantum algorithms and classical-quantum hybrid software targeting drug discovery and industrial optimisation, with a focus on near-term quantum hardware.
Milan, Italy · Event Amazon Web Services' free one-day cloud conference at Fiera Milano Rho. Keynotes, technical breakouts, hands-on labs and a partner expo covering generative AI, data, security and serverless for builders, architects and startup founders.
Milan, Italy · Startup Bending Spoons acquires established digital products — apps, platforms, and SaaS tools — then applies AI-driven transformation to dramatically improve their performance. Founded in 2013 by Luca Ferrari and co-founders, the Milan company now owns Vimeo, Evernote, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, AOL, Remini, and StreamYard, among others. Its portfolio serves over 400 million monthly active users and 7 million paying customers. Targeting a $20 billion US IPO in 2026 with projected adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 billion, Bending Spoons has become Italy's most prominent tech success story and the world's most unusual acquirer.
Milan, Italy · Incubator Boost Heroes is a Milan-based early-stage micro-VC and syndicate founded on 17 July 2015, focusing on seed and early-stage investments across consumer internet, marketplace, impact, and fintech sectors. The firm has made over 57 investments across Europe, North America, and Asia, with portfolio companies including Satispay, Homepal, and GoodBuyAuto. Typical startup valuations at entry range from $1–5 million.
Rome, Italy · Venture Capital Founded in 2015 as the National Innovation Fund (Fondo Nazionale Innovazione) and wholly owned by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, CDP Venture Capital SGR is the largest venture capital operator in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe, deploying capital through a family of direct and fund-of-funds vehicles with a combined target allocation of over €3.3 billion in its 2024–2028 business plan. It operates across the full lifecycle — from seed (Italia Venture I/II) through growth (Large Ventures, target €700 million) and ecosystem development (VenturItaly II FoF, target €700 million) — covering deep tech, life sciences, digital transition, and sustainability. The portfolio spans 246+ companies, with notable names including Everli and Arduino; its fund-of-funds arms back virtually every significant Italian VC manager. As a state-backed anchor LP and direct co-investor, CDP acts as the cornerstone of the national innovation ecosystem.
Parma, Italy · Event International trade fair for food and beverage technology at Fiere di Parma. Hosts World Pasta Day 2026 alongside new Bakery and Beverage districts, showcasing AI, automation, robotics, traceability and energy-efficiency solutions for the food industry.
Milan, Italy · Event One of Italy's largest developer conferences, bringing together 2,000+ software engineers for talks on cloud-native, AI/ML, DevOps, and frontend. Strong venue for developer tool startups and engineering employer branding.
Milan, Italy · Event Organisator The Municipality of Milan, with implementation partner TIG – The Innovation Group, organises Milano Digital Week, a city-wide festival on digital innovation, AI and smart-city themes. It curates hundreds of largely free events spanning business, technology, digital citizenship, culture and education across the city.
Milan, Italy · Startup Cortilia is Italy's leading farm-to-home e-grocery platform, connecting consumers directly with small and medium Italian producers — sourcing fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and artisan products from vetted farms and delivering across Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, and six other regions covering 800+ municipalities. Founded in Milan in 2011 by Marco Porcaro, Cortilia has raised €53 million and became a certified B-Corp in 2022 following construction of a LEED Gold-certified green headquarters. Targeting EBITDA breakeven in 2026 and full-year profitability by 2027, the company carries a 2,500-product catalog with a strong focus on sustainability and local supply-chain traceability.
Rome, Italy · Event The leading European edition of the Cybertech conference series, at La Nuvola Convention Center, Rome, gathering cyber industry leaders, enterprises, and policymakers. Relevant for security founders seeking enterprise and government buyers.
Como, Italy · Startup D-Orbit is an Italian space infrastructure company focused on in-orbit transportation and services for satellites. Its best-known product line is built around orbital transfer and deployment: rather than leaving smaller satellite operators constrained by the primary mission of a launch vehicle, D-Orbit helps place payloads into more precise target orbits after launch. That changes the economics and flexibility of access to space for customers who need better control over deployment profiles. The company also reflects a broader trend in European deep tech, where success increasingly depends on integrating hardware, software, mission operations, and long sales cycles into a single commercial platform. D-Orbit therefore matters beyond aerospace alone. It shows that European startups can participate in the frontier infrastructure layer of the space economy instead of limiting themselves to downstream software or research projects. In this directory, D-Orbit helps extend coverage into spacetech and aerospace logistics, while also connecting naturally to the ecosystem's support organizations, accelerators, and cross-border industrial networks that often help hard-tech companies reach early validation and partnerships.
Bisceglie, Italy · Event DigithON is Italy's largest digital and startup pitch marathon, held annually in the coastal town of Bisceglie in Puglia. The 2026 edition brings around one hundred selected startups for 48 hours of pitches, mentoring and networking in front of investors, venture funds, business angels and institutions, with a total prize pool of roughly €50,000.
Milan, Italy · Event Italy's largest Ethereum and Web3 conference, with 2,000+ attendees and 100+ speakers at the Leonardo da Vinci museum. A useful wedge event for web3 and crypto founders targeting the Italian and Southern-European builder community.
Milan, Italy · Startup Everli is Italy's leading online grocery delivery marketplace, connecting shoppers with over 100 supermarket chains — including Lidl, Esselunga, and Carrefour — across 60+ Italian provinces. Founded in 2014, personal shoppers physically select products at partner stores and deliver to customers' homes within two hours. With 237 employees and a 23% take rate, Everli signed a $180 million business combination with Nasdaq-listed SPAC Melar Acquisition Corp in mid-2025, targeting a Nasdaq listing in early 2026. The company secured an additional $10 million in bridge financing ahead of the expected public debut.
Rome, Italy · Startup Exein is an embedded IoT cybersecurity company headquartered in Rome, Italy, founded in 2018 by Gianni Cuozzo. The company develops solutions that integrate security directly into device software (firmware), using edge AI to detect and respond to threats in real time on the device itself. Its technology is used to protect connected devices across sectors including industrial, automotive, aerospace, and critical infrastructure. The company has expanded internationally with operations beyond Italy as part of a global growth strategy.
Trento, Italy · Event The 21st edition of the Trento Festival of Economics, drawing ministers, Nobel laureates, and 700+ speakers. A high-signal venue for founders tracking macro and policy shifts and meeting institutional players.
Bisceglie, Italy · Event Organisator Fondazione DigithON organises DigithON, Italy's largest digital and startup pitch marathon, held annually in the coastal town of Bisceglie in Puglia. It selects around one hundred startups each year for intensive pitching, mentoring and matchmaking with investors, venture funds and business angels.
Genoa, Italy · Startup Generative Bionics builds intelligent humanoid robots designed for real industrial environments, spinning out of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa where over 20 years of robotics R&D underpins the company's technology. Founded in July 2024 by Daniele Pucci, Alessio Del Bue, Marco Maggiali, and Andrea Pagnin, the company raised €70 million in December 2025 — one of Europe's largest humanoid robotics rounds — led by CDP Venture Capital's AI Fund with AMD Ventures, Eni Next, and Tether. Its robots, built on the iCub and ergoCub programs, are targeting deployment in manufacturing, logistics, and hazardous environments.
Venice, Italy · Accelerator H-Farm was founded in 2005 by Riccardo Donadon and Maurizio Rossi near Treviso in the Venetian countryside, positioning itself as one of the earliest startup incubators in Europe — predating Y Combinator's launch by only months. The platform has since grown into a publicly listed (since 2015) innovation campus combining startup acceleration, corporate digital transformation services, and three international schools educating over 1,150 students aged 3–18. H-Farm has supported approximately 120 startups and is ranked among Italy's top innovation hubs by the Financial Times.
Milan, Italy · Startup identifAI builds AI-powered deepfake and synthetic media detection technology, using 36 proprietary de-generative models to analyze images, videos, and audio for manipulation at pixel-level probabilistic patterns rather than superficial artefacts. Founded in 2024 in Cesena and Milan by cybersecurity veterans Marco Ramilli and Marco Castaldo, the company serves insurers, healthcare providers, HR departments, financial institutions, and government agencies for KYC verification and fraud prevention. Processing millions of checks daily, identifAI has raised €7.2 million (including €5 million led by United Ventures), was named a sample vendor in Gartner's 2026 Emerging Tech report, and counts Experian and KPMG among its clients.
Milan, Italy · Event Organisator Il Sole 24 Ore Eventi is the events arm of Italy's leading business newspaper, organising the Innovation Days roadshow with Confindustria across Italian regions. The series spotlights local entrepreneurship, digital transformation, SMEs and startups through talks, an innovation award and B2B networking.
Milan, Italy · Venture Capital Founded in 2016 by Davide Turco, Elizabeth Tosto, Antonella Grassigli, and Alvise Bonivento, Indaco Venture Partners SGR is Italy's largest independent venture capital management company, with over €350 million in assets under management across six funds. The firm specialises in proprietary-technology companies at Series A and B, with deep expertise in electronics, robotics, medtech, advanced materials, and digital sectors. Notable portfolio companies include Newronika (adaptive deep brain stimulation), Sibylla Biotech, Almawave, and Codasip; exits include Silicon Biosystems and Directa Plus. Indaco's differentiated focus on hardware-intensive and science-driven startups sets it apart from Italy's mostly software-focused VC landscape.
Turin & Milan, Italy · Accelerator Founded in 2007, Innogest Capital is a Turin and Milan-based early-stage VC managing over EUR 150M across funds focused on technology and life sciences. The firm invests EUR 0.5-5M at Series A in digital platforms, IoT, healthcare, and industrial tech. Notable portfolio companies include Genenta Science (IPO on Nasdaq), Musement (acquired by TUI), and Pharmacell. Innogest is one of Italy's pioneer independent VC firms with deep networks in the Piedmont and Lombardy tech ecosystems.
Bari, Italy · Event Innovation Days is Il Sole 24 Ore's national roadshow, run with Confindustria, touring Italian regions to spotlight entrepreneurship and digital transformation. The Puglia stage on 27 October 2026 convenes southern-Italy businesses, startups and institutions around competitiveness and digital innovation, with talks, an award and B2B networking.
Florence, Italy · Event Innovation Days is Il Sole 24 Ore's national roadshow, run with Confindustria, touring Italian regions to spotlight local entrepreneurship, digital transformation, SMEs, startups and territorial innovation. The Toscana stage on 22 September 2026 combines talks, an innovation award and networking for the regional business community.
Naples, Italy · Event Eleventh edition of southern Italy's flagship innovation fair at Villa Doria d'Angri. Connects startups, universities, research centres and corporates via B2B and R2B speed-dating, with the Innovation Village Award honouring projects aligned to the UN SDGs.
Milan, Italy · Support Organization The Italian Tech Alliance (formerly Italia Startup) is Italy's leading industry association representing the venture capital, startup, and innovation ecosystem. Founded to give the Italian tech community a unified voice, the Alliance brings together venture capital funds, angel investors, startups, scale-ups, and corporate members to advocate for better policy conditions for innovation in Italy. Key focus areas include reforming Italy's 'innovative startup' legal framework, improving tax incentives for VC investment, and attracting international capital to Italian companies. The Alliance publishes research on the state of Italian venture capital, organizes networking events connecting founders with investors, and works with the Italian government on policy initiatives to close the gap between Italy's strong technical talent base and its historically underdeveloped startup financing ecosystem.
Turin, Italy · Event Turin's flagship technology festival (7-9 October 2026), rebranded for 2026 as Wave by Vento and organized by Vento, the early-stage venture program of Exor. It gathers 1,500+ startups, 1,500+ investors and global tech leaders for keynotes, networking and pitch sessions at the OGR Torino, making it Italy's premier stage for founders to raise and connect internationally.
Milan, Italy · Startup Jet HR is an all-in-one Italian HR and payroll platform designed to eliminate the bureaucratic complexity of managing employees under Italian labour law. Founded in 2023 by Marco Ogliengo and Francesco Scalambrino, the Milan company automates hiring, payroll, shift management, expense reports, and compliance into a single system with dedicated labour law consultants included. Used by over 1,000 Italian companies across hospitality, tech, and manufacturing, Jet HR has raised €41.7 million — including a €25 million round led by US VC Base10 Partners — making it one of Italy's fastest-growing B2B SaaS startups.
Milan, Italy · Startup Lexroom is a Milan-based legaltech company founded in 2023 that builds an AI platform for legal professionals, including lawyers, law firms, accountants, notaries, and enterprise legal teams. Its product is designed for civil-law jurisdictions and uses a data-first architecture built on a proprietary database of verified legal sources such as legislation, case law, and regulatory materials, aiming to reduce fabricated citations and unreliable outputs common to general LLM tools. The platform supports legal research on verified sources, document analysis and comparison, custom clause drafting, and Microsoft Word integration. The company states it is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR and AI Act compliant.
Rome, Italy · Incubator LVenture Group is a Rome-based holding company listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana) that operates in seed-stage venture capital and startup acceleration. Together with its accelerator arm LUISS ENLABS, founded in 2013 as a joint venture with LUISS Guido Carli University, it has accelerated over 100 startups and built a portfolio of 90+ companies across fintech, cybersecurity, and digital sectors. The firm operates from a 9,000 sqm hub at Rome's Termini Station and a dedicated office at the LUISS Hub in Milan.
Rome, Italy · Event 14th edition of Europe's largest open-innovation faire, held at the Gazometro Ostiense. Schools, university labs, early-stage startups and independent makers exhibit side by side across robotics, AI, IoT, digital fabrication, agritech, sustainability and space.
Pisa, Italy · Startup Robotic microsurgery company behind the Symani Surgical System, pairing the world's smallest wristed NanoWrist instruments with tremor reduction and motion scaling for open soft-tissue microsurgery. FDA clearance 2024.
Milan, Italy · Event Milano Digital Week is a city-wide festival on digital innovation, AI and smart-city themes, with hundreds of largely free events across business, digital citizenship, technology, culture and education. The 2026 edition runs under the theme "La città generativa" (The Generative City), convening businesses, startups, citizens and institutions across Milan.
Bologna, Italy · Startup Musixmatch operates the world's largest licensed music data platform, providing synchronized lyrics, metadata, and audio intelligence to music streaming services, apps, and AI developers. Founded in Bologna in 2010 by Massimo Ciociola and co-founders, the company maintains a catalog of over 12 million songs in 250+ languages, with time-synced transcriptions, translations, and AI-generated genre and mood tags. In October 2025, Musixmatch signed landmark licensing agreements with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner Chappell Music for authorized AI training data services. Backed by TPG (2022) and P101/United Ventures with 80 million registered users and 50 million monthly active users.
Turin, Italy · Startup newcleo develops Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) fuelled by recycled nuclear waste, targeting a closed-fuel-cycle that dramatically reduces long-term radioactive waste. Founded in 2021 by Stefano Buono — previously founder of NASDAQ-listed nuclear medicine company Advanced Accelerator Applications, acquired by Novartis for $3.9 billion — newcleo has raised over $755 million to date, including $85 million in early 2026. The company is building PRECURSOR, a 10 MW non-nuclear lead-cooled test system at ENEA's Brasimone Research Center in Italy, with a full demonstration reactor planned for France by 2032 and €28 million invested in Turin research facilities.
Milan, Italy · Venture Capital Founded in 2013 by Andrea Di Camillo — a serial entrepreneur behind Vitaminic and Banzai and an early investor in Yoox and Venere — P101 is one of Italy's most prominent early-stage VC firms, managing approximately €500 million AUM. Its latest vehicle, Programma 103, closed at €250 million in early 2025, targeting early-stage startups in fintech, proptech, edtech, and cybersecurity with an average ticket of €5 million. Over 12 years P101 has backed 58+ companies and completed roughly 290 transactions with ~20 exits; standout portfolio names include Musixmatch (acquired by TPG for ~$500 million in 2023). The firm has a stated goal that Programma 103 companies will collectively generate €5 billion in revenue and 3,000+ jobs by 2030.
Milan, Italy · Accelerator Founded in 2015, Panakes Partners is a Milan-based healthcare VC investing EUR 1-8M at Series A and B in medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, and biotech across Europe. The firm manages over EUR 100M and focuses on companies with clear clinical evidence and regulatory pathways. Portfolio includes MMI (surgical robotics, IPO on Euronext), Novavido, and Kither Biotech. The team of medtech executives and clinicians provides hands-on support in clinical trials, CE marking, and commercialization.
Milan, Italy · Venture Capital Primo Ventures (operating entity: Primomiglio SGR), led by chairman Gianluca Dettori and founded in 2016, is a Milan-based VC managing approximately €530 million in assets across digital and space-focused funds. It launched the first Italian venture capital fund dedicated to space technologies — Primo Space Fund (target €80 million, first close €58 million) — in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Fondazione E. Amaldi, backing deep-space logistics, propulsion, and AI for spacecraft. Portfolio investments include D-Orbit (space logistics, Series C co-lead) and AIKO (AI for autonomous spacecraft operations). Beyond space, its digital fund invests in B2B SaaS, cybersecurity, and fintech at seed and early-growth stages.
Milan, Italy · Accelerator Founded in 2016, Primomiglio SGR is a Milan-based venture capital firm managing over EUR 200M across sector-specific funds. Its Barcamper Ventures fund invests EUR 0.5-3M at seed and Series A in digital and ICT startups, while a dedicated SpaceTech fund targets newspace and satellite technology. Primomiglio's scouting approach uses a touring bus (the 'Barcamper') to visit Italian universities and tech hubs to discover early-stage talent. Portfolio includes companies in SaaS, IoT, and space infrastructure.
Bologna, Italy · Event Community-led Python conference in Bologna over four days with 700+ developers and maintainers, featuring talks, workshops, and a PyData track covering AI and data engineering. Tickets around EUR 60 student, EUR 200 personal, EUR 250 business. Great for dev-tool, MLOps, and data-infra startups seeking Python adoption and Italian engineering hires.
Milan, Italy · Event The world's premier furniture and design fair, Salone del Mobile draws 300,000+ visitors to Milan over six days. SaloneSatellite gives designers and startups under 35 a dedicated exhibition space. Tickets EUR 40-60. Ideal for founders in smart home hardware, sustainable materials, and design-led consumer products seeking global retail partners.
Milan, Italy · Startup Satispay is an Italian mobile payment network headquartered in Milan, founded in 2013 by Alberto Dalmasso (CEO), Dario Brignone (CTO) and Samuele Pinta (CFO). Authorised by the Bank of Italy as an e-money institution, it operates an independent payment circuit that bypasses Visa, Mastercard and traditional card rails: users link a bank account via IBAN, hold a virtual wallet and pay merchants in-store, online or peer-to-peer through SEPA mandates at low fixed fees, making it especially attractive for small-ticket transactions.
With over 6.5 million users and 450,000 merchant partners as of mid-2026, Satispay is Italy's dominant independent payment network, expanding into France, Luxembourg and Germany and into corporate welfare, buy-now-pay-later and investment products. It has raised over €500M; the 2022 Series D of €320M led by Addition (with Greyhound Capital, Coatue, Lightrock, Block and Tencent) made it Italy's second unicorn, and in June 2026 it announced plans for a further round of up to €120M.
Milan, Italy · Startup Scalapay is Italy's leading Buy Now Pay Later fintech, enabling shoppers to split purchases into three interest-free installments both online and in-store. Founded in 2019 by Simone Mancini and Raffaele Terrone, the Milan-based company operates across nine European countries and partners with over 1,500 merchants, reporting a 48% increase in average basket size for retailers. Backed by Tiger Global, Tencent, and Poste Italiane with $783 million raised in total including a $497 million Series B in 2022, Scalapay reached unicorn status and received €70 million in EIB debt financing — the EU bank's first direct financing to an Italian scale-up.
Milan, Italy · Event Italy's biggest annual startup conference organized by StartupItalia, featuring keynotes from Italian unicorn founders, pitch marathons, and the Italian Startup Awards. 5,000+ attendees in Milan. Free to EUR 50.
Arco, Italy · Startup Smartness (formerly Smartpricing) is an Italian travel-tech and hospitality SaaS company headquartered in Arco, Trentino. It started as a dynamic-pricing revenue-management tool for accommodation providers and has expanded into an end-to-end AI platform for the hospitality sector, covering dynamic pricing, marketing campaign management, booking optimisation, guest messaging, CRM, payments, reputation management and property-management tools. The platform is aimed at helping hotels and accommodation properties increase revenue and direct bookings while reducing dependency on online travel agencies. In May 2026 it closed a €47 million Series B round.
Milan, Italy · Event Italy's largest innovation and digital business expo at Fieramilanocity, running for over 50 years. Features an Open Innovation Village connecting 200+ startups with corporate partners, workshops on Industry 4.0, and the SMAU Innovation Award. Free entry for registered attendees makes it very accessible.
Parma, Italy · Event SPS Italia 2026 was the 14th edition of Italy's leading trade fair for industrial automation and digital manufacturing, held 26-28 May 2026 at Fiere di Parma and organised by Messe Frankfurt Italia. The edition drew 37,528 attendees and 720 exhibitors across six pavilions, built around five core themes — cyber security, AI agents, software-defined manufacturing, robotics & Physical AI, and ESG. A Digital District (Industrial IT, Focus AI, Start-Ups, Academy), 50+ conferences across three arenas, and the SPS Italia UP Challenge for startups make it a key selling and partnership venue for industrial-tech founders.
Rome, Italy · Event Local pitch battle in Rome as part of Startup Grind's global competition series, with the winner advancing to regional finals. Features jury feedback, networking, and investor exposure. Date TBA (February). Valuable for early-stage Italian founders seeking pitch practice and visibility with Rome's investor community.
Milan, Italy · Innovation Hub Talent Garden is Europe's largest network of coworking and innovation campuses, founded in Brescia, Italy in 2011 and now headquartered in Milan. The company operates over 20 campuses across Europe including locations in Italy, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Romania, hosting a community of more than 5,000 innovators, startups, freelancers, and corporate innovation teams. Beyond workspace, Talent Garden runs TAG Innovation School, offering digital skills training in data science, UX design, digital marketing, and coding, and organizes community events, hackathons, and corporate innovation programs. The Milan flagship campus is one of the largest coworking spaces in Italy and serves as a central meeting point for the city's tech ecosystem. Talent Garden has raised significant venture funding to expand its European footprint and has become a model for how coworking communities can serve as genuine innovation ecosystems rather than mere office providers.
Turin, Italy · Event Two-day startup and investor matchmaking event during Italian Tech Week in Turin, organized in partnership with OGR Torino. Features pitch competitions, VC office hours, and corporates scouting for innovation. Attracts founders from across southern Europe. Free to EUR 50.
Florence, Italy · Startup Treedom is the world's first online agroforestry funding platform, allowing individuals and companies to plant trees in community-based projects across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, with each tree geotagged and photographed. Founded in Florence in 2010 by Federico Garcea and Tommaso Speroni, Treedom has planted over 3.3 million trees across 42 projects in 14 countries. Certified B-Corp since 2014, the company runs a hybrid B2B2C model — selling corporate sustainability packages to companies and individual tree gifting to consumers. Backed by Banca Sella with $14.4 million raised and 84 employees as of 2026.
Milan, Italy · Venture Capital Founded in 2013 by Massimiliano Magrini (former Google Italy MD) and Paolo Gesess, United Ventures is one of Italy's leading independent technology-focused VC firms, with cumulative AUM approaching €500 million across three funds including a €150 million early-stage Fund III (launched 2023) and a dedicated growth vehicle, UV T-Growth. The firm targets software, fintech, cybersecurity, cloud, IoT, and marketplace companies predominantly at Series A, co-investing across Italy and Europe. Its portfolio of 51 companies has generated 10 acquisitions and 2 IPOs; landmark investments include Musixmatch (10x+ return on exit to TPG), Everli (Series C lead, €22 million), and Cleafy (Series B, 2026).
Naples, Italy · Accelerator Founded in 2007, Vertis Ventures (formerly Vertis SGR) is a Naples-based VC bridging northern and southern Italy, managing over EUR 200M across early-stage and growth funds. The firm invests EUR 0.5-10M in media, fintech, and industrial tech, with a mandate to support innovation in Italy's Mezzogiorno region. Portfolio includes Buzzoole (influencer marketing), Optima Italia, and Mosaicoon. Vertis is notable for its focus on developing venture capital culture in southern Italy while maintaining national deal flow.
Bologna, Italy · Event A global festival for innovation, digital, and social enterprise, bringing together the startup ecosystem in Italy and beyond.