The 2023 start-up acceleration programme has been launched that aims to attract the best entrepreneurial projects to Turin, from all over the world, focused on future mobility systems.
In 2019, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and Fondazione CRT joined forces to establish the first Techstars acceleration programme in Italy.
Making a four-year commitment and an investment of over 12 million euros, the three partners intend to leverage the global Techstars network, which has managed acceleration programmes on all continents, generating a portfolio of 3,340 companies with a total market capitalisation of 97 billion dollars.
The ultimate aim is to attract to Turin the best start-ups involved in the development of frontier solutions to make the cities of the future more sustainable, inclusive and resilient.
The acceleration programme will last 13 weeks, during which the start-ups will receive an investment of 120,000 dollars and will be supported in their strategic decision and in validating their market assumptions. This will involve coaching “on the ground” from Techstars personnel and support from over 200 mentors selected internationally among entrepreneurs, managers, investors and domain experts.
Completing the offer is access to the Techstars global network, which the start-ups can benefit from for life – thanks to the “Techstars for Life” programme – to get advice, build partnerships and seek investments for growth.
The three annual programmes carried out so far have hosted 35 start-ups from 2 continents and 14 countries. All the start-ups supported have achieved particularly valuable results: following the programme, the companies raised investments of over 70 million euros and created more than 400 jobs.
Particularly important are also the links established between the emerging companies and the ecosystem of Turin: the hosted start-ups have in fact signed 34 contracts for PoCs and pilots commissioned by Italian clients and three foreign start-ups and, at the end of the acceleration process, they decided to open an office in Turin, thus creating an Italian company.
Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo has always seen start-ups as real “multipliers” in the pursuit of its local development strategies, aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. The Torino Cities of the Future Techstars Accelerator is therefore a precious opportunity to consolidate the role of the Foundation as a Turin “ecosystem developer” in the technological innovation sector.
The integration of Techstars start-ups with the local industrial fabric is therefore an important element of a broader action aimed at cultivating an innovation ecosystem in Turin that can bring together multiple complementary actors, including founders, investors, large companies, universities and incubators.
In the medium term, by hybridising patient capital and management skills, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo is laying a path aimed at enhancing and systematising the results achieved by the Techstars acceleration programme locally, involving institutional stakeholders and actors from its own group, including Fondazione LINKS, LIFTT, Equiter, I3P and 2i3T.
Guiding this effort is FCSP’s desire to strengthen Turin’s strategic positioning as an international hub for innovators capable of exerting centripetal force to attract excellent human capital to the city.
For further details about the Torino Cities of the Future Techstars Accelerator programme, see the dedicated website here.