If it is true that startups are the engine of innovation, Northern Italy is the engine of startups. The latest available data shows that 27, 9 and 5.5 percent of new innovative businesses are concentrated respectively in Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont. Almost half of the 14 thousand Italian startups are in the north, Infocamere reports have been saying for years.
Capital cities and provinces dominate both in absolute terms (Milan, for example, is by far the Italian province in which the most startups in Italy are concentrated) and in relative terms (Trentino Alto Adige, on the other hand, is the region with the highest incidence of innovative startups in relation to local companies).
What makes Northern Italy the area where startups grow best
Effect of at least two factors: startups in the North arrived earlier and found an entrepreneurial fabric that was more developed and more ready to welcome them than in other regions. They found companies to collaborate with, to offer their services, from ecommerce to customer management platforms, from cloud computing to cybersecurity. They had easier access to capital.
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The main venture capital funds, that particular investment sector that bets on these companies, are located between Milan and Turin. United Venture, 360 Capital Partner, P101 and Azimut, just to name a few. Added to this is another element. Cities such as Milan and Turin are those with the best broadband and ultra-broadband coverage in Italy, as demonstrated by a recent report by The European House – Ambrosetti and Eolo.
Pieces of what the sector calls ‘the ecosystem’. Which ensured that the first champions of Italian innovation emerged here, such as Yoox. Others have emerged in recent years, but the general public has already begun to know them: Satispay, Scalapay, Bending Spoons, Newcleo are former startups that have become companies capable of invoicing tens of millions. Those who work in the sector call them ‘scaleups’, a term that has roots in the English ‘to scale’. Climb. Going beyond the initial startup phase. And here too Northern Italy has few rivals. A report by Mind The Bridge photographs how many of these Italian scaleups are in the North. Of course, there are also some in the rest of Italy. And Rome remains the second city by number of scaleups. But it is in the North that they are most concentrated.
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Startup e Scaleup al Nord
In Lombardy they are 50% (316). In Piedmont 6% (38). In Veneto 4% (25). In Trentino 2.7% (17). In Friuli 2% (13). In Liguria 1.4% (9%). This is almost 70% of all national scaleups. A non-secondary fact. These companies, it has been said, are well-structured innovative companies. Which they ‘climbed’. But they are the tip of a much larger iceberg. That fleet of smaller startups from which scaleups emerged. The larger the first, the more scaleups emerge. A recipe that has found fertile ground in the North. And Milan has become the hub par excellence of this system.
The Mind The Bridge report, presented on 27 September at the Italian Tech Week, the main event dedicated to the world of Italian innovation, underlines that the data highlights a “Milan-centric” reality of national innovation, with a “significant concentration of scaleups and capital in the Lombardy region”. Other regions follow at some distance. Piedmont, second in this ranking, concentrates a number of scaleups and an amount of capital raised of approximately 15% compared to Lombardy.
At the Italian Tech Week the “Report Tech Scaleup Italy”. Italy’s startups pay off by Gabriella Rocco 28 September 2023
Going deeper, the ranking drawn up by Mind The Bridge shows a series of emerging hubs (poles) in the regions of Northern Italy. Although the density of scaleups in these hubs is currently still relatively limited, “their presence represents an encouraging indicator of the potential growth of these ecosystems,” we read in the analysis.
Startups and Scaleups: a lever for the economy and work
Brief overview to understand what is happening. Cities like Turin report 30 scaleups and substantial capital ($0.6 billion). Padua and Genoa welcome 9-10 scaleups each which however do not exceed $100 million in capital raised collectively.
Brescia, Como, Trento, and Verona host 7 scaleups each. Como, home to the ComoNext business accelerator, emerges with approximately 110 million dollars in capital. Followed by Bergamo, Monza, Rovereto, Trieste with 5-6 scaleups each. Other centers (including Treviso, Pavia, Lecco, and Venice) have lower densities (2-4 scaleups) and raised capital that does not exceed a total of approximately 70 million dollars. Numbers that help understand the magnitude of a phenomenon.
Much clearer, however, if read with others. These are companies that employ 22,000 people and are capable of generating 4.4 billion in turnover. With year-on-year growth of 50%. They represent the present of the regional and national industrial fabric. But with this capacity for growth they are already candidates to be the future of entire production chains, of wealth and well-being for the entire country.