Now in its 21st edition this year, Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta is the competition for tomorrow's innovative entrepreneurs, aimed at encouraging and supporting the birth of knowledge-intensive innovative start-ups to promote the economic development of the Italian regions of Piedmont and Aosta Valley. Having completed Stage 1 of the initiative, the “Ideas Competition”, the initiative has entered its Stage 2, the “Business Plan Competition”.
The initiative is financed by the Piedmont Region with resources from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), promoted by three universities in Piedmont - Politecnico di Torino, University of Turin, and University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO) - and organized by two university incubators: I3P, Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, and 2i3T, Business Incubator of the University of Turin. The competition is held as part of the Premio Nazionale per l'Innovazione (PNI), Italy's most important event for knowledge-intensive start-ups, organized annually by PNICube, the national network of university incubators and Start Cup competitions.
The competition is free of charge and is open to all aspiring entrepreneurs over the age of 18: anyone can enter the Business Plan Competition, either individually or as a team, even without having taken part in the previous phase, by submitting by July 28, 2025 an innovative business project in one of the five competition categories: Cleantech & Energy, ICT, Industrial, Life Sciences, Tourism and Cultural & Creative Industry.
The prizes
The Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta competition is a unique opportunity to transform studies and research into business projects, regardless of the stage of development, and enter the network of innovative business incubators. The winners will in fact receive support for the birth of start-ups, support in defining their strategy, accompaniment on the market through contact with the first customers and introduction to investors and banks for raising capital.
Following the closing of applications at the end of July 28, and after the intermediate stages of evaluation of the collected applications, by early November the best start-up projects participating in the Business Plan Competition will be selected to receive prizes of economic value, as well as special mentions, awarded with the support of a Jury composed of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business angels.
Thanks to the endowment made available by the promoting entities and supporters of the 2025 edition, the total prize pool amounts to over €65,000 and will be disbursed in cash and services offered by various partners.
The three overall winners will receive cash prizes. The first place winner will receive a prize of €7,500, the second of €5,000 and the third of €2,500.
The top six projects will also be awarded a prize of €1,000 each for entry into the 2025 edition of PNI, the Italian National Innovation Prize, the “champions cup” among the winning business projects of the regional Start Cups, which this year will be held in Ferrara at Ferrara Expo on Thursday, December 4 and Friday, December 5, 2025. The event will be jointly organized by PNICube and the University of Ferrara, as part of ECOSISTER - Territorial Ecosystem of Innovation of Emilia-Romagna, funded by PNRR.
Thanks to the many sponsors and partners interested in contributing concretely to the development of innovation, Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta also includes a series of special prizes:
- Fondazione CRC will award the Fondazione CRC Prize of €10,000 to the best business project that establishes enterprise in the Italian Province of Cuneo;
- the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta, aimed at entrepreneurial development in the Aosta Valley territory, will award the Valle d'Aosta Prize of €7,500 to the best business project that sets up the company in the Pépinière d'Entreprises of Aosta or Pont-Saint-Martin;
- Distretto Aerospaziale Piemonte (Piedmont Aerospace Cluster) will award the Sustainability In Aerospace Prize worth €7,500 to the best project that considers the theme of sustainability in aeronautics and space;
- Fondazione Laura & Franco Beltramo ETS will offer two Social Innovation Awards totaling €7,500 for two best entrepreneurial projects in the fields of medicine, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture and food needs that promote social progress and the development of better living conditions;
- LINKS Foundation will assign the City of the Future and Sustainability Award, worth a total of €7,500 in the form of spendable credit in technical services provided by LINKS staff, to up to two of the best projects proposing innovative products and/or services based on sustainability-related technologies;
- Jacobacci & Partners will award two prizes with a total value of €7,000 to the two best entrepreneurial projects with intellectual property characteristics, paid in the form of credit that can be spent on consultancy services in the field of trademark, model and patent protection;
- UniCredit sponsors the UniCredit Start Lab Prize, which consists of a mentorship session to evaluate the suitability of a project to be admitted to targeted contents of the Start Lab program;
- the ToMove project of the City of Turin sponsors three “Future Mobility” awards in services, intended for as many entrepreneurial projects on the theme of smart and sustainable urban mobility.
Five special mentions will also be awarded:
- “Women Entrepreneurship”, for the best female-led business Project with a majority female team (over 50%).
- “Social Innovation”, for the best project proposing innovative solutions in one of the fields provided by article 2, paragraph 1 of the Italian Legislative Decree 155/2006 on social enterprise.
- “Open Innovation / Spin Off Industriali”, for the best project concerning innovative products and/or services deriving from a joint research activity between a company and a Piedmont University.
- “Climate Change”, for the best business project regarding climate change, capable of integrating innovation, technology, protection, and enhancement of natural resources in order to create economic growth and environmental protection.
- “Sustainable Technologies”, for the project which stands out the most by its originality, intended as either related to the trademarks’ field or the technology, awarded by Jacobacci & Partners.
