ERA Global (https://eranycglobal.com) hosted nine Italian startups to run the fourth edition of the Global Startup Program program, in partnership with the Italian Trade Agency (https://www.ice.it/en/markets/usa/new-york) in early 2024.

The program, spanning twelve weeks, was designed to support these startups in their entry into the U.S. market. It commenced with a two-week virtual preliminary phase, which provided foundational training to prepare the teams for their U.S. experience. In mid-January, the founders arrived in New York City for the subsequent eight-week segment of the program.

Throughout the program, each company demonstrated significant progress by engaging with potential customers, partners, and investors. Later-stage companies secured new partnerships and customers within New York City and across the US, while early-stage teams validated their business models and advanced from customer discovery to product development. The immersive experience in New York City facilitated further progress for all of the participants.  

Weekly workshops offered country-specific insights on sales, marketing, and fundraising, equipping founders with the skills necessary to navigate the U.S. market. These sessions covered key topics such as adapting sales strategies for U.S. customers, securing investment from U.S. investors, and marketing effectively to U.S. audiences. Additional sessions featured incorporation-specific information, such as protecting IP, applying for US visas as entrepreneurs, and structuring foreign companies in the US. A highlight of the program was a visit to the Meta offices at Hudson Square, courtesy of ERA Global mentor Valentina Corbetta and Meta’s Global Creative Planning Lead Benny Thomas. 

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All nine founders took advantage of the multiple occasions to pitch in front of the NYC tech ecosystem. In February, the participants pitched to ERA mentors at the Program Kickoff at the Italian Trade Agency. To conclude the program, the founders returned to the Italian Trade Agency for a final event where they pitched their ventures to investors and potential partners in NYC. At the Entrepreneurs Roundtable event in March, Butterfly Decisions was chosen to pitch to the featured investor guest speaker in front of a large audience at Microsoft Times Square. 

In conclusion, the program successfully accelerated nine Italian startups’ expansion to the US market. Through workshops, mentor meetings, and pitching opportunities, the companies made strides toward the US market and their global expansion. ERA Global anticipates the companies’ continued success on a global scale. 

Read more about the participating teams below: 

Bindfire has developed and patented a new fire suppression system designed for the single extinguishing agent that complies with environmental regulations. This system protects building critical infrastructure. 

Butterfly Decisions offers a dynamic, AI-powered platform that revolutionizes decision-making processes with customizable templates for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, delivering de-risked outcomes by combining human judgment and machine learning. 

Clearbox AI provides synthetic data services to financial institutions to train and validate machine learning models to improve robustness and reliability of such models up to 25%. 

HrCoffee’s product Splash is a comprehensive people analytics platform.

‍LAIZY offers a community-driven library of expert-crafted AI prompts compatible with platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Midjourney. Users vote on prompts, enhancing the relevance and efficiency in diverse AI interactions.

Medlea delivers personalized digital twins for predictive lung health through a platform that analyzes multimodal medical data to provide general purpose diagnostics for oncology, COPD, and fibrosis.

Reair Global enhances indoor and outdoor air quality within buildings with an e-Coating system that is a transparent nanotechnology that is activated by light and air through photocatalysis and decomposes harmful pathogens. 

Small Pixels leverages generative AI to elevate the quality of video content with  a lower bandwidth for broadcasting companies.

‍Startgram simplifies the management of investments, cap tables, and stock options for startups The intuitive interface provides real-time access to capital structure information and provides more transparency and control.