A party. With institutional panels, ministers and international guests, but the atmosphere of the first day of the Italian Tech Week was that of a celebration of innovation. And an opportunity to meet again. Live, after the pandemic. Over four thousand between entrepreneurs, investors, young founders of innovative companies have filled the spaces of the Officine grande repairs in Turin. All day long. Already early in the morning, when the first groups of people began to form in the corridors, next to the rooms where the event was held. In international contexts it is called networking. But at the Ogrs there is a different vibe. Perhaps due to the awareness of being working in a sector, that of digital technologies, which has become the engine of an ongoing change.
IT Week 2022, Riccardo Luna: “Startups are an alternative to citizenship income and a minimum wage”
The idea is well expressed in the words of Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Innovation in Ukraine: “A greeting from the capital of freedom. Technology is the future. And the future belongs to those who produce and distribute digital products “. Fedorov, who sent a greeting from Kiev to Italian Tech Week, explained how digital is helping Ukraine to remain a nation, thanks to platforms that help the bureaucracy to move forward.
IT Week 2022, Admir Masic from refugee to MIT professor: “I dream of free study courses for all refugees in the world”
Digital is a tool that can simplify the life of a state. Even in the relationship with its companies. And the companies from the stage of the ITW have asked the state to facilitate the bureaucracy. They did so by relaunching the words of Loris Degioanni, from Piedmont, who has been in San Francisco for 20 years. There he founded Sysdig. 800 employees worldwide. 140 in Italy. It is worth 2.5 billion. Degioanni and the other Italian entrepreneurs who have found their way to success in the digital economy have asked the new Italian Parliament from the stage to facilitate the life of their businesses. Not concessions or incentives, but “less bureaucracy”.
IT Week 2022, Manuel Agnelli and the Maneskin controversy: “Here’s what I really said”
The Italy of startups has grown since ten years ago when it adopted a law that favored the birth and investments in this particular type of company, which move on a very slippery ground such as that of frontier innovation. Today they attract international investors. And large national institutions. The director of the National Cybersecurity Agency, Roberto Baldoni, answering questions from the director of La Repubblica, Maurizio Molinari, announced that his agency will launch a call next month to look for national startups capable of strengthening cyber defense strategies national. “In the future we also want to support them by entering their capital,” he said.
Investments are essential for a startup. According to data from Dealroom in 2022 in Italy 1.3 billion were invested in startups. Constantly growing year on year, but lagging behind other European countries. If in Italy 18 euros per capita are invested in innovation, in France they are 140. To reach those levels it is necessary to strengthen the investment market. A proposal came from the panel to celebrate 10 years of the Startup Act. Allocate 1% of the funds’ investments to innovative companies. Institutional and pension funds. For Gianluca Dettori, president of Primo Venture, “by moving even only 1% of the assets managed by the INPS, the gap could be recovered in 10 years”. A hypothesis. However, shared by the other fund managers present at the panel and by Corrado Passera, who as Minister of Economic Development wanted the law on startups of 2012.
Today Passera leads Illimity, a technology-driven banking group founded in 2018. A startup. Like all startups, “they create beautiful innovation and are a good investment. This 1% that should be asked of institutional investors would give a great return. A country that invests in startups is a country that works for its future, a better country, ”the former minister said. Proposals to improve a young ecosystem. However, at the Italian Tech Week he showed a strong international vision. We need to work on business culture. Making sure that failure is no longer a stigma but what a value. “We have to take risks, both individually and collectively. There can always be failures, but the entrepreneurial spirit cannot really be learned without first experiencing defeat, ”said Noam Ohana, Managing Director of Exor Seeds. Culture can still be worked on. But the managers of the great international giants at the Italian Tech Week leave a certainty. Unanimously: in terms of talent and potential for the digital economy market, Italy is second to none.