Finally, by the end of 2018 in New York City there may be a Made in Italy Tech accelerator. That’s what Nicola Garelli, president of iStarter, announced during the NYC edition of its “2020” world tour, on February 26, at Grand Central tech.
German startups have their German accelerator, French startups have La French Tech in NYC, Israeli startups have plenty fo connections in the Big Apple. Italian tech entrepreneurs can count on the support of the Consulate and of the Italian trade agency, but with iStarter they’ll be able to find also investors, mentors and partners, Garelli hopes. He is principal at the Boston consulting group and he founded iStarter in 2011 with Simone Cimminelli and Mattia Pontacolone. iStarter is an accelerator with about 100 equity partners: since 2012 they have invested directly about 35 million euros in 32 projects, which are mostly alive (only seven have gone or are going shut down). They focus on Italian innovation and in New York they have exhibited ten startups with features they love. Here they are, in alphabetical order.
Amicomed, based in San Francisco, co-founded by ceo Giangiacomo Rocco di Torrepadula: a digital therapeutic service the leverages proprietary algorithms to help manage people’s blood pressure. Armadio, based in NYC, founded by ceo Matteo Mattia Gemignani: a direct-to-consumer offering a curated selection of the best undiscovered designers from Italy.
Biddo, based in London, founded by ceo Federico Solinas: an e-commerce that transform shopping into a game and offers deep discounts.
Bidtotrip, based in London, founded by ceo Sara Brunelli: a bidding system to get luxury hotel rooms with up to 70% discount.
Competitoor, based in London and Carpi, cofounded by ceo Davide Lugli: specializes in price intelligence and monitoring, for e-commerce and brands; among its clients it has Barilla.
Dante Labs, based in NYC, co-founded by ceo Andrea Riposati: it sequences 100% of people’s DNA, by using the most powerful genetic testing technology. Goal: to revolutionize healthcare and enable personalized medicine.
Desmotec, based in Biella, Italy, founded by ceo Alberto Bertagnolio: it builds and sell performance, rehab and recreation equipment with isoinertial training technologies.
Evensi, based in San Francisco, co-founded by ceo Paolo Privitera: a search engine dedicated to geo-located events; the world’s largest events discovery platform.
Kinetech, based in Pisa, Italy, co-founded by ceo Lucia Lencioni: a spin-off company of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, makes exoskeletons and wearable robots for robotic-aided training and rehabilitation.
Orwell, based in London, co-founded by ceo Franco Mignemi: a Fintech startup specializing in one layer of the banking services stack, the cash management function.
It was a brilliant sample of Italian startups, confirming that Made in Italy excellence is also tech, as Consul General Francesco Genuardi said opening the event.
