Italy Responds To Pandemic With 53 Innovative Startups At 2021 CES

Italian Trade Agency (ITA) fuels renaissance in entrepreneurship despite global emergency

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Jan 11, 2021, 07:55 ET

ROME, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Against the backdrop of the worst public health crisis in more than a century, the Italian Trade Agency will introduce a new generation of technology startups – its largest and most ambitious ever – at the Consumer Electronics Show All Digital from January 11 to 14.

The 53 Italian tech startups to be rolled out at CES this year confronted challenges due to the pandemic ranging from interrupted financing and limited access to labs to perform R&D to delayed delivery of electronic components to develop prototypes. Nevertheless, even as frustrations mounted and projects took months longer to complete than anticipated, the startups adapted and discovered workarounds.

Indeed, some of the Italian startups to present at CES created solutions to address problems born from the pandemic itself: an app that monitors distances among people, outdoors and indoors, an online platform that makes working from home more productive and efficient, and analytics that measure occupancy rate in a venue.

The Italian startups at CES will span the spectrum of sectors from 3D printing and 5G technologies to AR, AI, blockchain, cloud computing and IoT, featuring robotics and wearables for digital health, entertainment, fitness, smart cities, smart homes and more.

The rollout brings to a head a trend in growth among Italian startups ever since the ITA launched an international initiative in 2012 to promote startups representing the Made In Italy brand. New startups registering with ITA increased 10.9% during the first nine months of 2020, as the pandemic struck, compared to all of 2019. Italian startups attracted $850 million in investments in 2019, more than twice as much as in 2017 ($403 million) – and an almost fivefold increase over 2015 ($179 million).

CES will be the first stop in a 2021 road show under the ITA umbrella that will take the Italian startups to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vivatechnology in Paris, the AI Summit in London, DLD in Tel Aviv, the Web Summit in Lisbon, GITEX in Dubai and Slush in Helsinki, among others.

The ITA's Global Startup Program will also sponsor more than 100 startups to team up with top acceleration programs such as ERA, Mass Challenge, Mind the Bridge, 2112 and mHub for two months around the world.

"Italy has a heritage of innovation that is renowned the world over," says Carlo Ferro, president of the Italian Trade Agency. "CES will now serve as a springboard for our ongoing quest to take that tradition into the future."

About ITA

The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) is the Governmental Agency that supports Italian companies' business development abroad and promotes foreign investment to Italy. With a network of 79 offices in 65 countries, ITA serves as a gateway for enterprises interested in establishing, developing, and expanding business relationships with Italian partners, sourcing Italian products, and pursuing investment opportunities. More specifically, the agency educates, trains, consults with, publicizes, and otherwise assists small and medium-sized businesses in spreading the Made In Italy brand worldwide.

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SOURCE Italian Trade Agency