Officially presented in Milan today 6 June 2024, the XXII edition of StartCup Lombardy, an event that promises important news for the ecosystem of innovation and new entrepreneurship.
Since its launch in 2016, this competition for start-ups, promoted by the Lombardy Region and Musa – Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action, has contributed to the creation of 41 new businesses, with a total investment of 1.1 million euros and 23 million euros collected in ‘equity’ investments by new businesses.
Startcup Lombardia is an initiative intended to support the creation of new high-potential businesses, closely linked and supported by the region’s universities and university incubators. The project, in fact, aims to promote the culture of innovation within the university context, encouraging and supporting the economic development of the Lombardy region. The competition involves four main areas:
- ICT and services
- Life sciences and medtech
- Industrial technologies
- Cleantech and energy
What’s new in the 2024 edition
The 2024 edition of Startcup Lombardia saw an even wider participation of universities, a financial guarantee of 250,000 euros for the winners and a series of events scheduled for October, designed to facilitate networking between start-ups and Venture Capital funds. This edition also includes an active collaboration with the Regions which, together with Lombardy, are part of the Alliance of the ‘Four Engines of Europe: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Baden-Württemberg and Catalonia.
It’s a unique opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs, many of them young, to turn their ideas into reality. The initiative also provides prizes and special mentions for projects that stand out in terms of environmental and social sustainability, female entrepreneurship and workplace safety. “Startcup Lombardia has proven over the years to be a winning formula capable of stimulating new entrepreneurial challenges and supporting the growth of a new generation of entrepreneurs in a fertile and collaborative ecosystem,” said the councilor for Economic Development Guido Guidesi, one of the promoters of the initiative. “We want Lombardy to continue to be the ‘House of ideas’, a land of opportunities for anyone who wants to face their own entrepreneurial challenge, with the support of a Region that promotes the culture of self-entrepreneurship”.
Startcup Lombardia projects
In addition to Startcup, the Lombardy Region supports other initiatives to support start-ups. An example is the business accelerator ‘Berkeley SkyDeck Europe- Milan, located in the MIND- Milan Innovation District. In just two and a half years of activity, it has selected 36 start-ups among 3335 applications from all over the world, generating direct investments of 5.2 million euros and a further 4.3 million euros from external investors and grants.
Another successful program is ‘New Business’, designed to concretely support new businesses with a regional allocation of over 15 million euros, which has stimulated private investments of around 36 million euros. Thanks to this initiative, 2180 new businesses have been created. activities between businesses and self-employed workers.
