Agribusiness, Verona becomes the new hub of innovation

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Verona accelerates in innovation in the agri-food sector. The vocation of the territory has made it the cradle of a new incubator of start-ups capable of implementing innovative projects ranging from cultivation techniques to packaging and which yesterday had its seal in the Auditorium of Veronafiere, where the protocol was reached in agreement that will give life to the “Verona Agrifood Innovation Hub”. The new center of excellence for innovating the agri-food sector was born out of a partnership between the promoters of FoodSeed and the Veronese entities committed to creating a hub-ecosystem of businesses around the accelerator. The protocol was signed by Raffaele Boscaini, president of Confindustria Verona, José Luis Cabañero, president of Eatable Adventures Italy, Maurizio Danese, managing director of Veronafiere Spa, Samuele Marconcini, managing director of Società Cattolica di Assicurazione, Alessandro Mazzucco, president of Fondazione Cariverona, Pier Francesco Nocini, magnificent rector of the University of Verona, Remo Taricani, deputy head of Italy of UniCredit and the mayor of the city Damiano Tommasi. The initial partners of Agrifood are the Municipality of Verona, Veronafiere, Confindustria Verona, University of Verona, Cattolica Assicurazioni (Generali).

For the Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, who spoke via videoconference, this is “an important result for the Verona ecosystem, for the development of venture capital and for its role as an enabler in the technological innovation of supply chains productive”.

FoodSeed presents itself as a new business accelerator oriented towards “foodtech”, the technological development of agro-industry, a sector in which Verona is an excellent hub on a global level and is supported by both institutional and financial subjects. It is a project with an initial investment of 12 million by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Venture Capital which will participate with 6 million, Fondazione Cariverona which will participate with 3 million, as well as UniCredit. A strategic partner will be Eatable Adventures, a Spanish operator specialized in foodtech accelerators which will bring up to 3 million euros of additional investment.

By joining the National Accelerator Network created by CDP Venture Capital, the objective of the Verona project is the acceleration of 10 start-ups a year for three years: therefore, 30 initial investments endowed with 170 thousand euros with the possibility of further contributions capital up to 500 thousand euros, for a total commitment of 15 million. Speaking of start-ups, Minister Giorgetti underlined that “they are one of the main vehicles for the transformation and modernization processes of a mature economy such as the Italian one”. For the coming days, the minister also announced a new legislative initiative on the capital market. «We must be aware of one fact: Italy is not yet where it should be. This observation must push us to do more and more to get where a large industrial country deserves». For this reason, «in a few days, the Ministry of the Economy will be the promoter of a legislative initiative for the competitiveness of the Italian capital market. We want to act to induce a wider range of medium-sized companies to access regulated markets to strengthen their capitalization and face competitive challenges with greater availability of resources and at the same time attract new investors”.