The virtuous circle of innovation | The paper

Startups grow, but how to turn them into businesses? GDP and work. A study by the Research & Entrepreneurship Foundation in collaboration with Srm Centro Studi e Ricerche of the Intesa Sanpaolo group

Between 2013 and 2021, the number of innovative startups in Italy grew by 860 percent, going from 1,467 to 14,077 and it is estimated that they will reach 23,000 in 2027. At the same time, a market of professional services is developing in the so-called open innovation – the new paradigm that requires companies to turn to the outside world to enrich themselves with ideas and technologies – which today is worth 2 billion euros but which can go up to around 4.3 billion. This is what emerges from the report of the Research & Entrepreneurship Foundation produced in collaboration with Srm Centro Studi e Ricerche of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, which will be presented today in Rome and which highlighted how spending on research and development in Italy is still under the European average (1.6 per cent vs 2.3 per cent) and is mainly supported by private companies. Not surprisingly, the country ranks second in Europe after Germany for the number of companies carrying out “collaborative” researchcarried out by several subjects belonging to different realities. The open innovation that is evolving fits into this context: over seven out of 10 large companies collaborate with startups or plan to do so. Overseeing this market are various operators who support the transfer of scientific knowledge and technological innovation from the places of research to the production system. Incubators and accelerators are among these and play a key role in offering services to small companies by supporting them in their first steps towards the market. According to the Social Innovation Monitor, there are 212 incubators in Italy, of which 57 per cent in northern Italy, in particular in three regions: Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Lazio. It is thanks to these realities that the number of startups is experiencing accelerated growth together with professional services which in turn represent a market with high development potential. It is the virtuous circle of innovation that produces new businesses and new jobs.