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LAS VEGAS – The Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas is certainly the most important fair for the entire consumer electronics and IT sector worldwide. Over the years it has evolved from a simple showcase for the latest gadgets to a true engine of global innovation, where the offer of innovation meets the companies that can benefit from it and put it into play.
Lately, a lot of this innovation has come from startups so much so that they now have a dedicated exhibition space called Eureka Park at the Venetian convention center. Italy, thanks to an initiative by ICE and Area Science Park, is present with 600m2 dedicated to 50 proposals from 13 regions of our country.
The collaboration between ICE, the agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies, and Area Science Park, a national research body supervised by the Ministry of University and Research based in Trieste, aims to raise awareness of abroad the Italian skills that go beyond the fields that are traditionally recognized in our country such as fashion, cars, food and tourism.
«Area Science Park has been active for years in supporting the internationalization of innovative Italian companies, but the evolution of recent years is important» explains Fabrizio Rovatti, technology manager of Area Science Park. «Our institution is by definition a reality that creates synergies between technological research and markets, which means, especially with regards to deep tech, also looking abroad. Bringing technology-based startups to contexts like CES means allowing them not only to come into contact with potential industrial partners and research centers among the most important on the world scene, but also to have concrete and direct feedback from the market.”
«In these contexts,” – continues Rovatti – “today we no longer just look for investments, but to build partnerships and research and co-innovation projects”. This is an extremely valid concept in a scenario that is becoming increasingly complicated for startups. After the abundance of funding from Venture Capital in past years, 2023 was characterized by a sharp contraction in investments at a global level which in Italy were 51% lower than in 2022 and in some countries (such as the USA) it reached 60%. This puts startups in a different position than in the past, forcing them to immediately confront the market and demonstrate that they are sustainable right away.
For this reason, the startups presented are all active in very promising sectors, ranging from artificial intelligence to the metaverse, passing through IoT, sensors, technologies for cars, smart homes and cities, sustainability, digital health, sustainability, accessibility, leisure and education.
And to further support the delicate startup ecosystem of our country, both ICE and Area Science Park have various initiatives. ICE’s Global Startup Program project offered 70 Italian startups the opportunity to be incubated and accelerated directly abroad, in fertile territories for their proposals.
“Technological innovation represents a strategic lever for the growth and competitiveness of our companies” – declared Matteo Zoppas, president of Agenzia ICE – “and Agenzia ICE does its part by carrying forward initiatives such as the Global Startup Program year after year , designed to promote and enhance Italian innovation in markets around the world and, in particular in the United States, with synergistic projects such as Innovit, the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub in San Francisco, which this year enriched the activities of our five American offices in New York, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles
Area Science Park, on the other hand, promoted a Startup Marathon which brought 61 startups supported by over 30 accelerators, incubators, universities and research bodies to compete with each other, bringing them into contact with potential customers and investors. From an internationalization point of view, however, the format chosen is that of Primo.Innovare aimed at bringing startups into contact with large American tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
This year a lot is expected from companies in the sector dedicated to artificial intelligence, where Venture Capital investments have also remained strong, but the phenomenon of digital transformation will push innovation in all sectors, leaving ample space for Italian companies too who will be able to exploit them.