In the fall of 2022 ERA Global accelerated ten Italian startups’ entry into the US market through a program in partnership with the Italian Trade Agency. This year’s program is the third edition of the Global Startup Program in New York City, and ERA Global has worked with twenty-five promising Italian startups to date. 

The program began in September with a two-week virtual bootcamp program consisting of pitch practice sessions, workshops on B2B sales and customer acquisition, and board meetings to determine current go-to-market strategy and program objectives. In October, all ten founders joined us in New York City at our offices for an eight-week program. 

During their time in New York City, the founders participated in workshops on fundraising, operating, incorporating, and selling in the US. With each session, they walked away with actionable insights that aided them in their initial meetings with customers, investors, and partners. All of the teams took full advantage of being physically present in the US by attending events and networking on the East and West Coasts. 

Each week, the founders improved their elevator pitches during pitch practice sessions with the ERA team, successful entrepreneurs, and investor guests. By the end of the program, the founders affirmed that they had greatly improved in pitching, and as one founder shared, “I see a light turns on for them when they understand what we do.” Another weekly activity was the Lead Mentor meetings, during which the teams met their designated Lead Mentor, who strategized with and advised each team on their US go-to-market strategy. 

As they gathered key findings about the US market, they were able to redirect and focus their strategy for their expansion into the US. For earlier-stage startups, the program was able to help them re-evaluate and pivot their business model. Ener2Crowd, an investment platform for green energy projects, created a spinoff called Catudi, because of the initial insights they gained from mentors and investors. Other teams launched marketing campaigns with the guidance of their mentors, and others secured partnerships and LOIs during their time in NYC.  

To conclude the program, the founders presented their ventures at a final pitch event with investors, mentors, and fellow team members in attendance. In preparation for the final pitches, workshop leads and mentors coached the founders to tell compelling stories of their company and their vision for the US market. 

The founders gained confidence in the US market by way of partnerships, customers, and an expanded network through the program. Read more about the ten startups below: 

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Catudi is a platform that measures, certifies, and saves the generation of carbon credit by green projects on the blockchain. Catudi enables an open and transparent exchange on a marketplace. 

Earth Automations has developed a multipurpose autonomous crawler robot to improve the operational maintenance of farm fields. The robot is capable of working both autonomously and with wireless remote control. It performs a high range of operations in total safety due to a hardware based platform and Artificial Intelligence.

Eligo is the first marketplace for personal stylists to sell high-quality Italian products and to offer style suggestions. Eligo has developed a live shopping assistance platform with a human touch as it offers an engaging and interactive customer experience for the end customer.

Ktchn Lab is the largest ghost kitchen in Italy. Operating in cities with 1M+ of population, Ktchn Lab integrates brand creation, menu development, marketing, and food prep to create a “Click to Table” experience in 20 minutes.

Lisia is an AI search engine that allows a user to search for an answer to any legal question in any language.

MinervaS offers solutions to the energy and automotive sectors toward the reduction of CO2 and onboard energy management. MinervaS can be customized for any propulsion and provides a suite of integrated solutions for smart and future mobility for any vehicle.

ML cube brings advanced decision-making systems to the market. The first product is AD cube, an AI-based platform for the cross-channel optimization of advertising campaigns, informed by machine learning and reinforcement learning.

Teta is a no-code tool for building apps in one weekend, using our new visual tree interface and our in-house Cms that provides seamless back-end integration. With real-time collaboration, numerous integrations, and 150 supported widgets, Teta finally enables pros, teams, and people to easily create apps.

Themis is an online trading platform for commodities and raw materials; this is the first platform that facilitates and secures transactions involving the exchange of commodity producers and consumers, securing each transaction.

Wibo is the platform that makes corporate education memorable, interactive, and fun through our Wibo Experiences: mobile-first, cohort-based learning experiences with content from the best providers that involve corporate teams in a learning flow based on 3 pillars of innovative learning: micro-learning, games, and live encounters.

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