The Startup Ecosystem of Italy

Italy has 42 cities in the top 1000 and is the leading startup hub in Western Europe.

COUNTRY RANKING

Since 2022, Italy lost 2 spots in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index, having now positioned itself as 31st worldwide.

Population

58.9
Million

Regional Ranking

15th
-
1
In Western Europe

Global Ranking

31st
-
2
Worldwide

Ecosystem

Startup Ecosystem Overview

aerial photography of city
Italy has a strong tradition of entrepreneurship: from high-quality leather goods to aerospace, from apparel to med-tech, from agro-food to industrial automation. This entrepreneurial mindset might be a contributing factor in developing the startup scene, spurring increased activity and attracting startup stakeholders. While many startups exist in cities such as Turin, Bologna, Naples, and Rome, Milan is typically seen as a bigger ecosystem due to its commercial mentality and a significant number of VC funds.
The economy is largely export-driven, and the local startup ecosystem has still not managed to substantially contribute to the economy. Other challenges that the Italian startup ecosystems face are: building a more favorable regulatory environment to stimulate startups, improving tax policies, encouraging greater involvement of the private sector (SMEs in particular), establishing a stronger global outlook, and simplifying the bureaucratic process, which is currently among the heaviest burdens that startups have to face.
Italian public sector ecosystem developers are much less active than in other European nations, but some initiatives are changing that. In 2020, the Italian government sponsored an investment program aimed at the native startup ecosystem, creating a new venture arm: CDP Venture Capital. Additionally, the Ministry of Economic Development launched The Italian Startup Act, which reorients existing legislation to incentivize Italian startup formation with tools like tax breaks on early-stage investments and R&D credits, as well as a startup visa to attract foreign talent.
Italy will need to implement reforms faster to stop founders from moving their headquarters elsewhere. On the other hand, it is encouraging to see that startup founders have a large and increasingly talented labor pool. Italy boasts an extensive network of high-quality universities (300,000 graduates per year), as well as science and technology parks. In addition, the country has proved its capacity to breed unicorns as seen in the case of Scalapay’s valuation of more than US$ 1 billion in 2022.
With Italy joining the unicorn club, we expect further acceleration of its ecosystem growth in the years to come.

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ECOSYSTEM

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Ecosystem

The Startup Ecosystem in Italy

Our startup ecosystem map for Italy includes a sample of 1014 tech companies. We have identified as unicorns 2 startups that have passed the USD 1 billion valuations.

Global Rank

Italy is ranked within the top 40 startup ecosystems globally.

Top Industries

Italy’s startup scene is best represented in Software and Data, Foodtech, and in and Education.

Top Cities for Startups in Italy - Ranked by StartupBlink
StartupBlink ranks the startup ecosystems of 100 countries and 1,000 cities. Download our latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
Rows:
2022 National Rank & Change ▲
Access subscores for 1000 cities and 100 countries
2022 National Rank & Change City
search leaderboards icon
Global Rank & ChangeTotal ScoreQuantity ScoreQuality ScoreBusiness Score
1st
0
65th
-
9
9.943
00.00
00.00
00.00
2nd
0
143rd
-
3
5.237
00.00
00.00
00.00
3rd
0
273rd
-
42
2.479
00.00
00.00
00.00
4th
0
321st
-
63
1.748
00.00
00.00
00.00
5th
0
334th
-
42
1.633
00.00
00.00
00.00
6th
0
478th
-
91
0.793
00.00
00.00
00.00
7th
+
4
508th
+
3
0.709
00.00
00.00
00.00
8th
+
2
519th
-
20
0.673
00.00
00.00
00.00
9th
-
1
525th
-
79
0.656
00.00
00.00
00.00
10th
-
3
535th
-
132
0.631
00.00
00.00
00.00
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Startups

Notable Startups in Italy
MoneyFarm startup icon
MoneyFarm
Prima.it startup icon
Prima.it
Everli startup icon
Everli

Startups

Successful Software and Data startups in Italy
Musixmatch startup icon
Musixmatch
THRON startup icon
THRON
Milkman Technologies startup icon
Milkman Technologies

Startups

Startups Ranking by Industry

Software and Data icon
Software and Data
#17 worldwide

On our map, you can explore a total of 291 startups for Software and Data.

Foodtech icon
Foodtech
#19 worldwide

In Western Europe, Italy's Foodtech is in top 19. Italy has a concentration of about 138 of the region's total Foodtech startups that are represented on our map.

Education icon
Education
#20 worldwide

Italy's Education is ranked 20th in the world. Our database contains 104 for this industry.

Featured Ecosystem Portals

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