Innovation is never quarantined. For Forbes Italy, this is proved by the stories of over one hundred Italians under thirty years old, active in many different sectors and ready to revolutionize them with their inventiveness. From economics to technology, from industry to entertainment, the categories on the list of Italy's most promising young talents are numerous, but they all share the same characteristic: a mind so brilliant that it can foresee and shape the future.
"As people around the world continue to fight the Covid-19 pandemic that has forever changed our lives, the 100 under-30s selected by Forbes Italy for 2021 are making their contribution on the front lines," wrote Daniel Settembre, Managing Editor, in the article presenting the list, "and with the power of ideas, talent and their start-ups, they are revolutionizing the way we work, care, invest, eat and buy."
It is no coincidence that, scrolling through the list, one finds several names familiar to those who frequent the ecosystem of the Innovative Enterprise Incubator of the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy: among the outstanding young personalities are 11 startuppers from I3P, whose cutting-edge projects are committed every day to innovating and transforming the world in which we live. Their inclusion in the prestigious Forbes list demonstrates the value of the ingenuity, commitment and courage with which they face the challenges of the market.
The Consumer Technology category starts with a group of no less than six under-30s selected with equal merit: they are the co-founders of Young, the start-up that aims to make the world of cryptocurrencies accessible to everyone. Andrea Ferrero (CEO), Stefan Alexandru Gheban (COO), Samuele Raimondo (CTO), Marco Ciarmoli (CSA), Andrea Carollo (Software Architect) and Daniele Rinaldi (Frontend Developer) have created a set of products with a vertical funnel, including the Young Platform for buying and selling bitcoins, which stands out for its security and ease of use. Young's adventure, which began in June 2018 with the foundation of the start-up incubated in I3P, has reached a valuation of 10 million euros in two years and was recently recounted by Il Sole 24 Ore among its "Success Stories". "It is an honor for us, as Young," commented the six young entrepreneurs, "to have been selected as a startup that is trying to revolutionize the cryptocurrency sector."
Under the Education category, in the Forbes Italy list, we find Loris Gay, born in 1996, Co-Founder & CEO of Usophy. Founded in I3P in 2019 together with Cristian Pintea, the start-up's mission is to build a digital library to make studying an interactive and accessible experience for everyone, with a focus on cost reduction and sustainability. To university students, in fact, its Online University Library offers textbooks and handouts in e-book format through tailored subscription formulas, from unlimited access to on-demand, in collaboration with publishers in the field. In 2020, a year of great growth for the entire Edtech sector, Usophy was funded by LIFTT, the operating investment company created by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Politecnico di Torino and Fondazione Links, to take the project to the next level. Today, Loris Gay's nomination among Forbes' "Young Leaders of the Future 2021" may give further momentum to his start-up, which has begun to be talked about abroad as well.
Listed among the most promising under-30s in the Enterprise Technology category, Matteo Giovannetti joined I3P in 2016 as a Business Analyst, following the growth of more than 100 young companies over time, particularly in the ICT field, and then trying his hand at founding a start-up with a technological heart: Clearbox AI. Created in 2019 to provide advanced tools for the adoption and "human-scale" use of Artificial Intelligence in companies, Clearbox immediately focused on explaining, monitoring, evaluating and continuously improving the AI models employed. The first successes came very soon: in the second half of the same year, Clearbox AI won first the Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta and then the ICT Prize at the XVII edition of the Italian National Award for Innovation (PNI). After that, the Clearbox team joined a working group for the United Nations on Machine Learning models. The topic has become increasingly relevant, so much that in February 2021 the national TV channel RaiPlay dedicated an in-depth special to the start-up's "Ethical Algorithms", interviewing its Co-Founder & CEO Shalini Kurapati. "I consider my presence in the Forbes list", commented Giovannetti, "a recognition to how interesting and important is what Clearbox AI is doing, both today and in the future perspective".
Also listed in the Enterprise Technology category is Federico Dubini, Co-Founder of Yobs Technologies. Founded in 2018 based in Los Angeles and incubated in I3P since 2020, Yobs helps companies develop more inclusive, meritocratic and standardized recruitment and personnel management processes, thanks to the support of audio and video data collected and analyzed by its proprietary platform. In November 2020, Yobs Technologies was a finalist in the Web Marketing Festival's Start-up Competition and received several special awards. Before Yobs, Federico Dubini had already founded and then sold a start-up in Milan and another in Hong Kong: three startups on three different continents within his 25 years.
The first name under the Science category is Alessandro Benetton, CTO of Automation at AIKO, one of the two "Start-ups of the Year 2020" of I3P. After a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin and an experience in Thales Alenia Space, Benetton joined the startup founded in 2017 by Lorenzo Feruglio, Giorgio Albano and Loris Franchi, which aims to become the reference for the application of Artificial Intelligence to autonomous missions in space. Last December, the Primo Space fund chose to invest €1,500,000 in the development of AIKO, the first company in Europe to have demonstrated the value of deep learning algorithms in orbit, paving the way for new growth paths and new technological milestones made in Turin.
Remaining in the Science category and in the aerospace field, Giovanni Pandolfi Bortoletto is the Chief Strategy Officer of Leaf Space, a young company formerly incubated in I3P and today specialized in providing ground segment services for microsatellites. Recently, Leaf Space has received funding for a total of €10 million and has announced a global scale-up plan, with which it will strategically extend its activities in Australia, Canada and Sri Lanka. International customers of the start-up, founded four years ago, include the European Space Agency (ESA), India's Space Agency (ISRO), Telespazio-Leonardo and Virgin Orbit. "This recognition goes to the whole team (under 30 and over 30)," Pandolfi Bortoletto commented, "thanks to the results that, with ups and downs, we have achieved together as a team and the ambitious ones that together we will achieve in the future."