Italy was one of 77 countries to participate in the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) campaign in 2008. Over the years, GEW events have attracted notable entrepreneurs from Italy and beyond as speakers, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. The GEW campaign continues to be run by META Group – a Rome-based innovation advisory, program delivery, and fund management company.
In 2014, Italy launched a bid to host the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, GEN's flagship annual event. Milan was selected to host GEC 2015 over other impressive bids from Doha, Medellin, and Split. The bid was led by Alessandro Fussacchia, then advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Alessandro had been driving Italy’s pioneering entrepreneurial policy developments in his previous role as advisor to the Minister of Economic Affairs.
In 2012, amidst persistent economic woes, Italy surprised the entrepreneurship community by swiftly and unexpectedly implementing a comprehensive legislative package to boost startups and scale-ups. Known as Startup Italy or Decreto Crescito 2.0, the package included reforms in various areas ranging from tax policy to incubator accreditation and labor laws. Alessandro began in April 2012 by putting together a 12-person Task Force made up of entrepreneurs, investors, academics, journalists and civil sector leaders. In October of that year, the group published its “Restart, Italia!” report, setting the basis for an integrated approach to entrepreneurship promotion. By December, the Startup Italy law decree was enacted. The Startup Act has been widely replicated globally.
GEC Milan featured speakers including Andrea Illy, chairman and CEO of illy; Gianluca Dettori, founder and chairman of dpixel; Federica Guidi, Italy’s minister of economic development; Roberto Battison, president of the Italian Space Agency; and Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Officine Arduiono.
The Congress also hosted the inaugural Startup Nations Ministerial, which, for the first time, convened entrepreneurship ministers from five continents. The Ministerial was chaired by U.S. Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet, who went on to address assembled entrepreneurs remarking “You are the world’s startup champions. Your elected officials must be yours”.
GEN maintains extensive relationships with key Italian ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Economic Development and Made in Italy, META Group, Roma Startups, InnovUp, H-Farm, and dpixel. Anilkumar Dave, a leading space economy expert and former head of innovation and technology transfer of the Italian Space Agency serves on the board of GEN Space. Luigi Amati, Co-founder of the Italian Angels for Growth, one of the fastest growing business angels groups in Europe links its formation to the early days of GEN at the Kauffman Foundation and today, the Italian Business Angels Network is also a member of GEN’s Global Business Angels Network.
Dozens of Italian startups have used GEN programs to speed their growth over the years. For example, six Italian startups have made their way to the finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup, run by GEN and Monsha’at, where they had access to free training resources, mentorship and exposure to potential investors. Wego, Alba Robot, Recornea, PatchAI, Prometheus, and Pedius all reached the EWC 100 and pitched for a share of $1 million at the EWC Global Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“[GEN] has enabled countless business opportunities and continues to keep our company’s well-being front and center,” said Daniel Chiaravalli, Alba Robot’s North America managing director. “Through introductions to mentors and other sector experts, our sales pipeline grew and our company started initiating conversations, which keep advancing, with organizations who are keen to leverage our technology to better serve their customers or stakeholders.”
GEN President Jonathan Ortmans has been a regular speaker at events in Italy and provided counsel to leadership focused on developing its ecosystems.