Sports start-ups

VitalMatch, Turin new sports & wellness innovation hub

The CDP Venture Capital pogram is supported by Startupbootcamp, Wylab, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Lottomatica Sport and Juventus

by Marco Bellinazzo

11 March 2026

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

In the increasingly close relationship between sport, wellness, and the technology industry, in the coming years Italia can count on a new startup incubator, VitalMatch Accelerator, a programme launched by CDP Venture Capital, an asset management company owned 70% by CDP Equity and 30% by Invitalia, and dedicated to innovative solutions in sport and wellness. This initiative follows on from the three-year experience of WeSportUp, aiming for a leap in size and strategy.

The industrial network

VitalMatch, unveiled on 9 March, was created at the initiative of CDP Venture Capital, with the operational collaboration of Startupbootcamp, one of the most influential accelerators in Europe, with more than 100,000 startups analysed each year and a 76% survival rate portfolio, and Wylab, Italy's first sports tech incubator founded in 2016 in Chiavari, and a network of top-level partners, such as the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Lottomatica Sport (corporate partner) and Juventus (sports and hosting partner).

"Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center is a strategic partner supporting the competitiveness of the territories, which has always been committed to projects for the development of innovation ecosystems with an international scope, capable of generating new entrepreneurship, qualified skills and quality employment - specified Viviana Bacigalupo, General Manager Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center -. Participation in VitalMatch is one of the initiatives with which our Group supports entrepreneurship in high-potential sectors such as health, wellness and sport. With this programme we intend to accompany promising start-ups and contribute to the growth of a dynamic and resilient entrepreneurial fabric".

The transfer of the programme from Rome to Turin, inside the Allianz Stadium, is an element that goes beyond the mere logistical dimension. It is a choice that enhances an area that in recent years has been working to consolidate a tech industry oriented towards sport, wellness and health, consistent with the guidelines of the new 2025-2028 Strategic Plan of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

"The VitalMatch programme represents an important piece of the strategy promoted by our Foundation to generate development and consolidate Turin's innovation ecosystem. In the wake of the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan and the Programmatic Guidelines for 2026, we have consolidated a programmatic vision of intervention with an increasingly broad perimeter in the field of 'health': an approach that integrates prevention, sport and longevity in a vision of all-round personal wellbeing," pointed out the Secretary General of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, Alberto Anfossi. "The arrival of this accelerator in Turin further expands the perimeter of the Foundation's Accelerator Platform and represents a concrete example of the mosaic of initiatives that we promote in support of the territory.

The move to the Allianz Stadium also confirms Juventus' strategy of structurally inserting itself into the innovation circuits, transforming the stadium not only into a sports arena, but into a true platform for entrepreneurial contamination. "Hosting an acceleration programme does not only mean providing space," explains Carolina Chiappero, Innovation Manager, Juventus Football Club, "it means creating proximity, welcoming entrepreneurial energy and sharing the spirit of a place that represents growth, ambition and passion.

From performance to well-being

In recent years, sport-tech has made a clear shift: it is no longer just the terrain of performance technology or data measurement, but an increasingly integrated segment of the preventive health, digital lifestyle, and mental wellness market, as emphasised by Stefano Molino, Head of the Accelerators Fund of CDP Venture Capital, which manages 15 investment funds, for more than 4.7 billion euros: "Wellness and health occupy an increasingly central space in people's lives: as a result, sport has also gained a prominent role in everyday life, bringing with it a growing demand for tools and solutions capable of enriching the experience - whether it is amateur or professional practice or simply the pleasure of experiencing it as a spectator The path that led us to the launch of this batch of VitalMatch was rich and stimulating, and the results make us proud. We are convinced that the solutions born from this process can make a real and tangible impact on people's lives.

The investment formula

VitalMatch fits into this trajectory, focusing on start-ups capable of moving into the new competitive space between sport, health and technology, a market that globally registers steady growth rates in both the consumer and B2B spheres.

The programme will select five start-ups, each of which will receive an investment of between EUR 150 and 400,000 over a 13-week course, between April and June 2026, with hybrid online and in-person sessions in Turin, mentoring, business development, fundraising and direct access to the partners' industrial network. The path will culminate in the Demo Day in September 2026, also in the Piedmontese capital.

From 10 March to 3 April 2026, start-ups already validated by the market, in the seed or pre-Series A stage, will be able to apply for a growth path that aims to become a reference for those developing technologies dedicated to sports performance, the fan experience and integrated solutions for health, longevity and daily well-being.

The Legacy of WeSportUp

VitalMatch represents the natural evolution of the three-year acceleration programme carried out in Rome under the WeSportUp banner. "With this new acceleration cycle," explained Federico Smanio, CEO of Wylab and Program Director of VitalMatch, "we are continuing a path that, in the first three batches, has seen 26 start-ups accelerated, over 2 million euro invested directly by WeSportUp and almost 8 million raised independently by the start-ups downstream of the programme. Our ambition is to further strengthen the role of the accelerator as a reference point for innovation in sport and wellness, supporting the Italia ecosystem of sports start-ups with an impact on society and quality of life. We do this through more capital and a tailor-made acceleration model focused on business development'.

"We are looking for entrepreneurs, not just candidates: people who choose to take responsibility for changing the lives of others, starting from something profoundly human," concluded Nazzareno Mengoni, Founder Startupbootcamp Italy & Global Partner -. Because sport & wellness are part of a 360-degree health concept, and they are not just growing markets, they are also energy regained, health preserved, quality of life that counts again in an increasingly fast-paced world. Today, thanks to new technologies, important capital is coming in: but the real difference will be made by the founders capable of transforming this drive into solutions that really work. With VitalMatch, as Founder of Startupbootcamp, we want to lead a development path where innovation becomes concrete and start-ups are lifeblood: we put the right people around the right people at the right time, to make them grow faster and farther".