Campania accelerates the growth of innovative startups from Naples to Silicon Valley
(Adnkronos) – With over 1,400 innovative startups representing almost 10% of the national total, the Campania Region maintains its position on the podium of the ranking of the Italian regions with the highest number of startups, confirming itself as a very active breeding ground for new ideas entrepreneurial. After all, Campania was chosen as the Italian headquarters of the Apple developer academy, of the Campus of Novartis and of the Aerotech academy and, in the same way, at the foot of Vesuvius, realities such as Cisco, Deloitte, Accenture and Tim, thus confirming itself as an attractive destination for all those national and international companies involved in coming into contact with the innovation produced and accelerated in this area.
In this context, the ninth edition of Smau Napoli scheduled for 15 and 16 December at the Mostra d’Oltremare is included. During the two-day event, organized in collaboration with the Campania Region and Campania Development, there will be 50 startups and 5 intermediate subjects, including accelerators, districts and local incubators who will present themselves to an audience of national and international professionals and companies.
“Smau has always represented a moment to take stock of how much our regional ecosystem is evolving and growing. Not only are we in third place among the regions of Italy for the number of startups, but we are also the second region for the number of startups under 35 and for the growth rate of SMEs in the last five years (+26.6%). I am convinced that this is the time to step on the accelerator and continue working to create the conditions for our ecosystem to grow. In the new ERDF 2021-27 recently approved, 500 million investments will be allocated to research and innovation and, of these, 50 million will be allocated to startups. We will also develop new tenders to facilitate the support of public and private players whose interest has grown considerably in recent years, and, last but not least, next spring, together with Smau, we will bring some of our startups to Silicon Valley to give them the possibility of accessing a network of international relations with some of the most innovative companies in the world” comments Valeria Fascione, Councilor for Research, Innovation and Startup of the Campania Region.
“In the international events of Smau in Paris, London and Berlin we presented to international operators a Region that has built a lively and excellent ecosystem in which the dialogue between universities, research centers and companies has been able to create real excellence, not only in the field of technological innovation, but also in life sciences, manufacturing and aerospace, and with the appointment of Smau Naples we will present this ecosystem to the territory, in order to create new national and international synergies. Some of the actors we met on our tour of appointments abroad will be there to see this ecosystem up close, visit the Apple Developer Academy and meet local actors. In short, it will be two days of general rehearsals in view of our next tour in Silicon Valley” adds Valentina Sorgato, CEO of Smau.
There will be different ways in which, over the two days, it will be possible to get in touch with the excellence of Campania: from startup safaris, which will lead innovation managers, decision makers and entrepreneurs on a journey to discover the most interesting realities for them, to demo days scheduled over the two days, in which 16 regional startups that have just completed the research and innovation project funded by the Campania Region will be ready to present themselves to the market for the first time.
Two, however, the working tables scheduled: in the first table dedicated to Innovators some of the largest Italian and local companies such as Ferrovie dello Stato, Fnm, Lactalis, Siram Veolia and Telepass will meet the exponents of the Campania ecosystem of innovation, while the second table will be dedicated to the new regional programming and ICT enabling technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain.
Furthermore, on 16 December at 12, the demo day of the Giffoni For Kids acceleration program is scheduled, in which the 10 startups accelerated by the program and the results obtained will be presented: Blaster Foundry, BeValory, Blast Universe, Cosmeet, Family Days, The Thing Finder Club, M8, Nexstory, Parentsmile and Vik School.
How to defend ourselves against cyber attacks, what will be the challenges for companies in the cybersecurity field? How to generate traffic to your website thanks to SEO? Is it possible to sell with TikTok? Come? Can cryptocurrencies fight research? These are some of the questions that will be answered by the 40 free workshops held by teachers and experts on the most current topics in the business world. A training program that represents a moment of direct meeting with the speakers and which can subsequently also be carried out remotely through Smau academy, the free training platform of Smau.
As part of a Live Show program it will be possible to learn about the innovation experiences of companies and organizations from Campania that will receive the Smau Innovation Award: a precious source of models to inspire and of partners – companies, institutions and local stakeholders – with whom face the challenge of change together.