AI Week 2026
Milan, Italy · EventBilled 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.
Italy city focus
Milan startup directory
Hand-picked startups, investors, and ecosystem operators in Milan, with a custom city illustration in europe-startup-guide.com brand colors.
30 entries.
AI*Festival
Milan, Italy · Event OrganisatorOrganizer 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.
AI*Festival 2026
Milan, Italy · EventInternational 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.
Algorithmiq
Milan, Italy · StartupQuantum 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.
AWS Summit Milano 2026
Milan, Italy · EventAmazon 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.
Bending Spoons
Milan, Italy · StartupBending 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.
Boost Heroes
Milan, Italy · IncubatorBoost 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.
Codemotion Milan 2026
Milan, Italy · EventOne 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.
Comune di Milano (Milano Digital Week)
Milan, Italy · Event OrganisatorThe 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.
Cortilia
Milan, Italy · StartupCortilia 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.
ETHMilan 2026
Milan, Italy · EventItaly'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.
Everli
Milan, Italy · StartupEverli 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.
identifAI
Milan, Italy · StartupidentifAI 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.
Il Sole 24 Ore Eventi
Milan, Italy · Event OrganisatorIl 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.
Indaco Venture Partners
Milan, Italy · Venture CapitalFounded 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.
Italian Tech Alliance
Milan, Italy · Support OrganizationThe 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.
Jet HR
Milan, Italy · StartupJet 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.
Lexroom
Milan, Italy · StartupLexroom 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.
Milano Digital Week 2026
Milan, Italy · EventMilano 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.
P101
Milan, Italy · Venture CapitalFounded 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.
Panakès Partners
Milan, Italy · AcceleratorFounded 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.
Primo Ventures
Milan, Italy · Venture CapitalPrimo 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.
Primomiglio SGR
Milan, Italy · AcceleratorFounded 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.
Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026
Milan, Italy · EventThe 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.
Satispay
Milan, Italy · StartupSatispay 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.
Scalapay
Milan, Italy · StartupScalapay 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.
SIOS - StartupItalia Open Summit 2026
Milan, Italy · EventItaly'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.
SMAU Milan 2026
Milan, Italy · EventItaly'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.
Talent Garden
Milan, Italy · Innovation HubTalent 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.
United Ventures
Milan, Italy · Venture CapitalFounded 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).