For the ninth consecutive year, the renowned magazine Forbes Italia has selected 100 Italians under 30 who reflect a country in transition. The list, which includes both individuals and teams from innovative start-ups that have particularly distinguished themselves, features young entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of technology and others seeking to reinvent traditional sectors, as well as talents from the worlds of sports, art, music, and film.
The complete list is divided into ten categories: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Finance, Manufacturing & Industry, Media & Marketing, Retail & E-Commerce, Science & Healthcare, Social Impact, Sports & Gaming, and Technology, with ten nominees (individuals or teams) in each category.
In four of the categories, this year Forbes Italia has selected a total of thirteen start-up founders who have been supported along their journey by I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino: entrepreneurs, both men and women, who are not yet thirty but are already counted among “the talents, visionaries, and minds who are changing the rules of the game”. Over the past six years, the magazine has listed more than 80 I3P start-up founders, representing over 40 young companies that have passed through the incubator, among the leaders of the future!
There are seven young companies founded by the startuppers selected in 2026: Astradyne, BrainTex, DatAIMed, Forte AI, Fraido, Safher and Therness. Their business projects span different application sectors, but they all share a high degree of innovation and potential for future growth.
Astradyne
Davide Vittori is the Founder & CEO of Astradyne, a start-up that develops ultralight solar panels for space applications. Supported over the years not only by I3P but also by the ESA BIC Turin incubation program (managed by I3P), Astradyne’s project arose from the realization that the growing demand for energy on Earth is becoming unsustainable and that space offers unique conditions for much more efficient solar energy production.
The start-up enables the development of new, energy-intensive space architectures and infrastructure, with the potential to reduce the impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystem over time.
In September 2025, Astradyne officially announced that it had secured a 2 million euro investment from Primo Capital, Galaxia, and Eureka! Venture SGR. In previous years, Vittori had served as COO at AIKO, one of Italy’s leading companies in the space technology sector, which has also completed an incubation path in I3P.
BrainTex
Francesco Mascarana, Mirko Agarla, Sergio Gugliandolo, and Simone Torino are the four co-founders of BrainTex, a start-up founded in 2024 that offers an innovative quality control system that integrates with machinery throughout the entire textile supply chain and detects defects using artificial intelligence. The team met during the I3P Startup Academy training program and joined forces to achieve a shared ambition: to turn an idea into reality.
The solution of BrainTex - currently incubated at I3P - automates the textile production process with a modular structure that can be integrated as a plug-in on existing machinery and is capable of monitoring the entire production cycle. The startup’s proprietary AI trains itself autonomously in less than two minutes, even on complex patterns, ensuring objective real-time analysis to reduce waste and unnecessary rework by more than 50%, in line with the latest EU sustainability directives.
Last year, BrainTex received the CDP Venture Prize at the Italian National Innovation Award (PNI) 2025, which it qualified for by placing fourth in the Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta competition in the earlier months.
DatAIMed
Dario Taborelli is the Co-Founder and CEO of DatAIMed, a start-up that has been active in the digital health sector since 2024: the young company uses artificial intelligence to make scientific evidence accessible and applicable in clinical practice.
The platform integrates machine learning and natural language processing to provide advanced tools for literature searches, critical analysis of scientific articles, and personalized clinical consultations. The project’s goal is to help healthcare professionals reduce medical errors, optimize resources, and improve patient care worldwide.
The solution developed by the technical-scientific team led by Taborelli is capable of transforming over 150 million scientific papers and guidelines into clear, actionable recommendations for clinical practice. The platform is already integrated into local health authorities (ASL), university hospitals (AOU), IRCCS, and clinics, and is used by thousands of doctors and healthcare professionals. In addition, Dario is a researcher, physical therapist, and city council member.
Forte AI
Loris Comba is the Co-Founder & CEO of Forte, a young innovative company that is revolutionizing the way professionals in the audio industry work with AI every day.
The start-up, incubated at I3P, specializes in developing AI-based software solutions for professional audio production: Forte’s software automates the most repetitive, manual, and low-creative-value tasks in the workflow, thanks to an AI model capable of recognizing and organizing any type of audio file.
In 2024, the start-up closed a €320,000 pre-seed equity round led by 40Jemz Ventures, with participation from B4i Fund and AFP Capital. In 2025, it announced the launch of a strategic partnership with Avid Technology, a global leader in software and tools for audio and video content creation - the company behind Pro Tools, the internationally recognized Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Fraido
Antonio Maria Vizioli, a nurse specializing in emergency medicine, and Elia Fregonese, a materials and nanotechnology engineer, are the two founders of Fraido, a start-up that aims to redefine the approach to invasive medical procedures.
Thanks to patented technology that enables real-time monitoring of a tube’s diameter, the devices developed by the start-up are inserted with minimal impact and expand only when necessary. This innovative approach simplifies airway management, vascular access, and drainage systems, reducing risks, time, and complexity, and opening up new possibilities for safer and more efficient procedures.
The young company is being incubated at I3P after winning the Special Award offered by the incubator at the 2025 edition of Startup Breeze, an initiative in which Fraido also stood out by receiving the award offered by EIT Health. In March 2026, the start-up ranked among the top 10 out of more than 180 competitors in the Switch2Product innovation challenge, organized by Politecnico di Milano, earning a €30,000 grant funded by Deloitte.
Safher
Giorgio Spadaro and Giulia Tortoioli are the Co-Founders of the Turin-based startup Safher, which was founded in 2022 and has received support from I3P over the years. The young company has launched Safemate, a mobile app designed to protect vulnerable people while they are on the go.
Developed by a multidisciplinary team of students from Politecnico di Torino, the app offers interactive tools to increase people’s sense of safety while walking. The real-time reporting feature is designed to allow users to immediately report urban hazards and unpleasant situations along their route - including those involving people - thereby constantly updating the app’s interactive map.
Today, the project is participating in the Space TO Move acceleration program, working with real-world data and concrete pilot projects in collaboration with institutional partners such as the City of Turin, Politecnico di Torino, University of Turin, LINKS Foundation, Fondazione Piemonte Innova , GTT, CinqueT, and Torino City Lab. Safemate is also a finalist in the 2026 ioMobility Awards at the Next Mobility Exhibition in Milan.
Therness
Luca Santoro, General Manager, and Pietro Paolo De Crescenzo, Operations Director, are the Co-Founders of Therness, an innovative start-up that emerged from research at Politecnico di Torino and was founded in 2025 to revolutionize the field of process control for welding lines.
The company develops non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies to monitor welding processes in real time: the solution integrates thermographic images and machine learning algorithms to improve quality control, reduce production costs, and increase efficiency.
The founding team of Therness is made up of experts from both academia and industry, combining years of research experience with practical knowledge. The project, which has already qualified for the competition Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta 2024, won second place overall in the "Clean Tech & Industrial" category at the 2025 edition of UniCredit Start Lab, and went on to win first place at the Call 4 Startups 2025 organized by RINA and Zest Group.
