Startcup Lombardia, the 2024 edition kicks off

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The 2024 edition of Startcup Lombardia, the competition for start-ups supported by the Region, is underway. The initiative, which was presented in Milan, has seen 41 companies set up since 2016 with a total regional investment of €1.1 million and €23 million in equity investment accumulated by the start-ups. Startcup Lombardia, promoted by the Regional Department for Economic Development and Musa (Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action) in collaboration with Lombardy's universities and university incubators, allows aspiring entrepreneurs, often young, to propose projects that in many cases turn into reality, offering added value to the Lombardy economy in terms of innovation, employment and induced activities.

For the new edition, in view of the success achieved in recent years, the Lombardy Region has involved a larger number of universities in Startcup, activated a financial guarantee of 250,000 euro for the competition winners and structured events, scheduled in October, to facilitate meetings between start-ups and venture capital funds, as well as an active collaboration on the topic with the regions that together with Lombardy make up the 'Four Motors of Europe' alliance: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Baden-Wurttemberg and Catalonia. Startcup also includes prizes and special mentions that highlight innovative ideas in terms of environmental and social sustainability, female entrepreneurship and safety at work. Over the years, Startcup has proven to be a winning recipe for launching new challenges together with universities and helping the birth of a new generation of young entrepreneurs, who find in the ideal ecosystem the right environment to express their potential. In this way, the Lombardy ecosystem - the institutions headed by the Region, universities, organisations and trade associations - move in unison, making available the ingenuity of entrepreneurs and the expertise of workers.

"We want Lombardy to continue to be the 'House of Ideas', a land of opportunity for all those who want to take up their own challenge, and perhaps win it with the help of a region that focuses on strengthening the culture of self-entrepreneurship," reiterated Lombardy Region's Economic Development Councillor Guido Guidesi.

Alongside Startcup, the Region is pursuing other initiatives to support start-ups, such as the one at Mind, Milan Innovation District, where the 'Berkeley SkyDeck Europe - Milan' business accelerator is active to accompany the growth of new projects and also ensure links with qualified financial operators: in the first two and a half years of activity, 36 start-ups were selected from among 3,335 applications received from all over the world, which generated EUR 5.2 million in direct investments and EUR 4.3 million in external investors and grants. The 'Nuova Impresa' (New Enterprise) instrument, set up by the councillor for Economic Development to provide practical support for new enterprises with a regional allocation of over EUR 15 million, which generated private investment of around EUR 36 million, was also a success.