Startups, what they ask of the Meloni government

To take stock of the first ten years of Startup Actthe law passed on October 18, 2012 which set up the registry for startups, making the country competitive in the field of innovation (investments of over 1 billion euros were achieved in the first half of 2022 alone), there was one major absentee: the institutions. In the room and in the lineup of speeches, no member of the Meloni government, empty chairs that have not gone unnoticed and that above all concern the most lively sector of the Italian economy.

An absence immediately noticed by George CironDirector of InnovUpthe leading association of all the souls of the variegated Italian innovation ecosystem, which organized the event 10 years of Startup Act at the auditorium of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, a day of discussion in which enablers, investors, companies, scale-ups and corporates took part. “It is an absence that we are very sorry for – has explained – because today we are here to talk about something important: jobs. Because startups and companies in their first five years of life today they are the realities that most create employment in Italy”. An absence also noted by Luciano Floridi, professor of Philosophy and ethics of information at the University of Oxford, at the beginning of his illuminating speech: “I’m sorry not to have the presence of the institutions, I don’t understand how that is possible in Italy there is still no digital ministry; digital was once considered the icing on the cake, today it is the cake”.

10 years of startup in Italy

In 2012 the law that opened the doors to innovation in Italy. Corrado Passera and Paolo Barberis remember those days. The new challenge is to grow venture capital. For Wired, Vem has selected the top ten startups with the most fundraising in Italy

Startups in Italy, an exponential growth

In 2012, the realities registered in the register are a few hundred, today there are more than 14 thousand, an exponential growth told in the opening speech by the father of the law and great guru of Italian startups, the former Minister of Economic Development of the Monti government, Corrado Passera: “The legislation was born from a process of listening and study. We started with the involve all stakeholders, with that community of innovators who wanted to operate at their best; we put them online. Then we sent a group of people around the world who drew up a report where they showed the best ideas that came from the best international experiences. They told me that if we could do only half we would be very successful, but then we asked ourselves: why do only half if we can do them all? We therefore began to make the changes that would have served to align the legislation on the subject of work and development “.

An initiative that not everyone understood at the beginning of the journey, because it presaged a change of declination with respect to what was the country’s economic fabric. “According to many interlocutors – explained again Passera – needed maintain the stigma of failurefifteen we fought because the idea of ​​punishing failure it’s just the opposite of the idea of ​​the startup. Over time, the seriousness of the work we carried out created a great consensus around the law, which allowed us to approve it despite the government having resigned”.

10 years after the law on startups, Italy still has a lot to do for innovative companies

We need tools to make them grow, investment vehicles, more flexible rules and ad hoc training. Some proposals from those who helped write the first law on innovative companies

Requests to institutions

A good law that fortunately the successive governments did not distort, but enriched with modifications in line with its philosophy. Today, startups are asking for cbridged the structural gap with the main European countries, that the existing regulatory framework be updated and simplified, that tax incentives be increased, that concessions for investors be implemented and that policies capable of attracting talent and encouraging female entrepreneurship are implemented. “That of venture capital – concluded the former minister – is a theme to push to do switch startups to scaleup. We have to be ‘cultural pushers’ for young people because to date there are no noteworthy university courses. At stake is not just a segment of an economy, but the future”.

The basic idea is to arrive at a shared manifesto that can look to the next ten years with a view to facilitating and supporting startups by increasing the competitiveness of the supply chain, streamlining bureaucratic obligations, overcoming the current regulatory stratification and favoring the internationalization of startups, SMEs and innovation centres.