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.
Startup Series A SpaceAIDeep TechSoftware
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.
Startup Series A Deep TechBiotechAI
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.
Startup Growth SoftwareB2B SaaSMarTechAI
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.
Startup Series C FoodTechSustainabilityImpactLogisticsTech
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.
Startup Growth SpaceTechAerospaceLogistics
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.
Startup Growth FoodTechLogisticsTechSoftware
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.
Startup Series C CybersecurityIoTDeep Tech
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.
Startup Series A RoboticsAIDeep TechEnterprise Tech
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.
Startup Seed AICybersecurityDeep TechFintech
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.
Startup Series B HR TechB2B SaaSSaaS
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.
Startup Series B LegalTechAIB2B SaaS
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.
Startup Growth MedTechRoboticsHealthTech
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.
Startup Series C AIBig DataSoftwareMarTech
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.
Startup Series B EnergyDeep TechCleanTechSustainability
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.
Startup Growth FintechPaymentsMobile
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.
Startup Scale FintechB2B SaaS
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.
Startup Series B TravelTechAIB2B SaaS
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.
Startup Series A Climate TechSustainabilityImpact