Startup Marathon is the largest competition among startups, SMEs and university spin-offs across Italy aimed to identifying the innovation needs of Italian corporations. Set up in 2020, this competition has selected and awarded innovative companies which are active in fields like artificial intelligence, diagnostics, the IoT and sustainability.
The 2024 edition, promoted by Area Science Park, UniCredit and Fondazione Comunica, includes some novelties as compared to previous years. Along with the traditional contest, there is a B2B Open innovation programme addressed to startups, which will allow partnering companies to submit their innovation challenges. For both programmes, the startups will be “introduced” by the Italian network of organizations involved in business development (incubators, accelerators, universities) that will have time until September to join by following the rules set out at startupmarathon.it. They will select, through internal scouting, some of the startups, innovative SMEs and spin-offs they support that will apply to the two programmes. The candidates will be evaluated on their capacity to meet the needs stated by the partners. Then, those with the most interesting proposals will be given the opportunity to access one-to-one meetings with corporations to present
Candidates of reference organizations will present their video pitches to investors and entrepreneurs during the Startup Marathon Digital Day, scheduled to take place on 24 October 2024 during the DIGITALmeet event. During this event, the 10 finalists selected will compete in a pitch competition on 26 November in the Tower Hall UniCredit in Piazza Gae Aulenti in Milan. The projects will be evaluated by jury of experts from the world of entrepreneurship, innovation, and specialized press, chaired by Mariarosa Trolese, a board member of the Italian Business Angel Network. The winners will be supported to find grants and funding, as well as to develop products and services that can generate turnover and employment. The winning startup will participate in the UniCredit Start Lab acceleration programme, similarly to the second and the third. Moreover, the first 3 startups will be offered privileged access to the Executive MBA in Business Innovation organized by the MIB Trieste School of Management. The same award will also be assigned to all the 10 finalists. Finally a special prize will be awarded to the best startup, innovative SME or spin-off whose social composition is majority female, who will be eligible to participate in the BoostHerUp international accelerator programme, organized by Area Science Park in collaboration with Prospera Women.
