INVESTORS’ FORUM 2023 "The future won't wait"

Umbria: open-air laboratory to experience innovation Investors' forum 2023: start-ups meet potential investors

The winners of the startup pitch are: UBT Umbria Bioengineering Technologies, Beexlab, BugsLife and Recuperiamo, which were particularly appreciated by investors and companies present

Perugia, 6 June 2023 - To catch up with other regions where innovation is the main driver of economic development. This is the goal that the Region of Umbria has set itself in recent years, through the support and promotion of start-ups and innovative SMEs in the local fabric and the comparison with national and international models in order to best favour the creation of a winning ecosystem. In a favourable context also in terms of territorial dimensions, the Umbria Region has thus been able to involve companies, start-ups and institutions, creating a true 'open-air laboratory' in which the possibility of experimenting involves all players at 360 degrees.

This was the subject of the Investors' Forum 2023, the event organised by the Umbria Region in collaboration with Sviluppumbria, which saw speakers from the world of regional politics and institutions as well as experts from the world of start-ups and innovation.

“I still remember when together with the President of the Umbria Region we were writing the electoral programme and all the data told us of an Umbria that was distant from the world of innovation, with a very high mortality rate for innovative companies. That was the starting point of this administration's commitment to change course. To become a Region where innovation is talked about, and innovation is done, in the knowledge that these issues often do not warm the hearts of politicians, because they take a long time to bear fruit, but remain fundamental to guaranteeing our Region the future it deserves”. This is how Michele Fioroni, Councillor for Economic Development, Digital Innovation and Simplification of the Umbria Region opened the Investors' Forum press conference. “With this in mind, over the past four years we have been sowing seeds, trying to put in place an innovation policy that would reason with a supply chain logic, in which regional measures would be differentiated for each step of the life cycle of innovative projects. This approach was indispensable to reduce the risk of failure within three years of start-up, which is the main threat that start-ups all over the world face. Today, 16 of our innovative start-ups and SMEs are presenting themselves, in an extremely credible and effective manner, in front of a pool of investors of the highest level, and this is just the first step in repositioning Umbria on the national scene as a region that wants to play a role in innovation”.

“The Investors' Forum represents a fundamental moment in a journey begun more than two years ago by Sviluppumbria to take up the challenge of innovation launched by the Region of Umbria,” commented Michela Sciurpa, CEO of Sviluppumbria. “A process considered unique in Italy, which, with the launch of the SMARTup programme, has brought about a small, great revolution in the use of public funds, which have also focused for the first time on non-financial services to businesses, provided by a qualified team of experts that has been active both before, during, and after the submission of applications. A true Umbrian ecosystem of innovation has been created, starting with the involvement of the University of Perugia - with which Sviluppumbria has a cooperation protocol for technology transfer - and moving on to trade associations, professional associations, research centres, clusters, and ending with consultants operating in the area”.

THE SMARTUP EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME: A PATH TO INNOVATION

The Investors' Forum event represents the conclusion of an experimental path that began in 2021, the 'SMARTup' regional acceleration programme managed by Sviluppumbria, which has seen start-ups and innovative Umbrian companies benefit not only from funding, but above all from a real acceleration and accompaniment programme consisting of training, information, mentoring and coaching activities to assist them from the structuring of the business idea to its presentation to investors. Through a highly innovative approach, based on the most advanced business acceleration methodologies, from design thinking to lean startup, it has been possible for the region to take a significant step forward in the way it accompanies start-ups and business ideas in the region. Concepts were introduced such as TRL (Technology Readness Level) and IRL (Investment Readness Level), PoC (Proof of Concept), MVP (Minumum Viable Product), Unfair Advantage, and Early Adopters, which are basic in Lean Startups, but little known and used in most of the Umbrian innovation ecosystem. A path that saw the selection of 22 start-ups, over 100 individual meetings organised and the support of a group of consultants.

“Together with Sviluppumbria, we tried to create a toolbox based on the most advanced business acceleration methodologies, which would allow entrepreneurs to consolidate their business idea, gaining awareness of technological and manufacturing maturity and potential with respect to investors,” continued Councillor Michele Fioroni. “We have made startuppers able to confront the world of finance, using its language, its logics and metrics, we have changed a paradigm for this region by focusing on the method, the challenge, the involvement, the path built together”.

“It has been a truly exciting journey that started in 2021 at the behest of the Region of Umbria: we trained, revitalised the skills of Sviluppumbria thanks to the collaboration with Fondazione Ricerca e Imprenditorialità because we wanted to be ready to accompany start-ups along this path,” added Dr Michela Sciurpa. “Today, having almost reached the end of the SMARTup programme, we can say that together with the Region of Umbria we have rewritten the management models of regional innovation policies, arriving at an ecosystem that is mature in terms of specific skills and networking methods, with an increasingly professionalised and structured Sviluppumbria and with a dedicated team ready to implement the new development programmes in this area.

THE AWARD-WINNING START-UPS

During the Investors' Forum, the Pitch session was held for 16 start-ups (selected from those involved in the SMARTup process), which were able to present their projects to a selected group of investors and a panel of Umbrian companies with the aim of raising capital and developing potential partnerships. From these, the start-ups whose innovative project and business model are potentially the most interesting for investment were selected:

UBT UMBRIA BIOENGINEERING - SME founded in 2015 as a Spin Off of the Physics Department of the University of Perugia to create MAMMOWAVE®, a mammograph based on a highly innovative technology that uses harmless microwaves at a very low frequency <1Mw (as in common mobile phones) instead of dangerous ionising radiation (X-Rays) for the early detection of Breast Cancer.

BEEXLAB SRL - have created the smart wine platform AlBicchiere that revolutionises the wine-tasting experience. With the Albi IoT dispenser it is possible to savour each glass at the ideal temperature and reduce waste by perfectly preserving wines thanks to the innovative patented packaging. The sommelier app guides the discovery of new wines based on actual tastes and consumption.

BUGSLIFE SRL - develops complete technology packages for industrial-scale breeding of soldier fly larvae. BugsLife handles the breeding of flies for egg production; the fermentation and pre-treatment of agro-industrial by-products; the fattening of larvae in controlled atmosphere cells; and finally, the processing of products into protein meal.

RECUPERIAMO SRL - has developed the first portal for the management of waste products based on blockchain technology. Companies can donate their stock to non-profit organisations. Regusto digitises and calculates the social and environmental impacts generated, converting the data into impact tokens that certify the Positive Impact in the territory.

These realities were evaluated by a 'technical jury' made up of investment funds and accelerators and a 'popular jury' made up of the entire audience in the room.

“With the pitches of this first Investors Forum, we have proof that innovative projects of an international level can be born from the small region of Umbria and that the Umbrian innovation ecosystem has strengthened and is able to offer important attractions to those who want to grow a startup in a suitable environment,” concluded Michela Sciurpa. “We wish all the start-ups involved in the SMARTup programme to continue on their path of growth, to realise their dreams, their innovations and to continue to develop our economy, because it is in their added value that the development of our region depends.

THE UMBRIA OF THE FUTURE

The conclusion of the SMARTup programme represents just one stage in a journey now underway for the Umbria Region, which aims to be the new territorial reference point for innovation and experimentation of new methodological approaches.

“We want to convey the theme of entrepreneurship as an educational element, and we are also doing so in schools, with a recently concluded challenge in which we prepared young people with the same tools used in SMARTup,” concluded Councillor Michele Fioroni. “The challenge of entrepreneurship is a slow sowing policy, we have to plough the field, sow the seed and, only when the time is right, proceed to harvest. We start with young people today to then create the startuppers of the future”.

(press release by Theoria - Investors' Forum Press Office)