The Politecnico di Torino has just published a report on the state of the art of innovation in Italy, realized by Social Innovation Monitor (SIM) of the Department of Management Engineering and Production of the university and in collaboration with InnovUp, PNICube, Lifegate, Coopfond, Iren, Cafiero Pezzali & Associati law firm, TimeFlow, Experientia, Instill and Social Innovation Teams (SIT).
The survey started from the city of Turin because here is based I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino, awarded last year as the Best Public Incubator in the world by the UBI Global World Rankings of Business Incubators and Accelerators. In 20 years of activity, I3P has incubated 255 startups, for a total value of 161 million euros and with an employment impact of more than 2,000 jobs.
On average, one startup out of 5 of those that apply is actually included in a support program in an incubator or accelerator. Of these, 38 are certified by Mise, 27 are run by universities and 17 are from companies. 34% of Italian incubators/accelerators stated that they acquire shares in the supported companies either in the form of venture capital or as remuneration for the services offered in the work-for-equity formula.
Italian startups supported by an incubation or acceleration path have generated 6,128 jobs in the last 12 months and generated a total turnover of almost € 500 millionAbout 40% of incubated startups exceed €100,000 in turnover. Compared to last year, there has been an interesting increase in the percentage of companies supported by Social Incubators, now reaching 50% of the national total. The most central themes in these business projects are environmental protection, animal protection and everything related to healthcare.
"2020 was a difficult year and it was not easy to collect data. We are grateful to the many incubators and accelerators that were able to respond allowing us to update the statistics on this important part of the entrepreneurial system. We hope that 2021 will be a year of recovery, fortunately we seem to see several positive signs," commented Paolo Landoni, Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Degree in Management Engineering and scientific director of the research.
