To provide a qualified showcase and foster new business-matching opportunities, promoting dialogue between start-ups, companies, research centres, institutions, and investors, so as to accelerate technology transfer and new partnerships, Ecomondo will once again feature the Start-Up Area within its Innovation District in 2025. The initiative is organised by Italian Exhibition Group in collaboration with ICE – Italian Trade Agency, ART-ER (the Emilia-Romagna innovation consortium), Fondazione MAI (promoted by the Confindustria system), ANGI – National Association of Young Innovators, and Plug and Play Tech Center, the world’s largest open innovation and venture capital platform.
A space within the Innovation District
The Start-Up Area will feature an exhibition format designed to maximise visibility, encourage engagement with the public, and create tangible business opportunities. Within this space, young enterprises, both start-ups and innovative SMEs with the potential to drive product and/or service innovation, will have the chance to connect with one another and showcase and introduce themselves to the wider business community attending the event, which will take place from the 4th to the 7th of November 2025 at the Rimini Expo Centre.
Among its objectives is to highlight the Italian innovation ecosystem as a key player in product development in the green tech and circular economy sectors at national and international level, and to give a platform to the most promising innovators, collecting the stories of those working at the forefront of the ecological transition in terms of development, culture, and skills.
How to apply for the Start-Up Call
To take part in the Call for Start-Ups, applicants must complete the registration form, which will be available online from the 19th of June 2025 to the 2nd of August 2025.
Start-ups and innovative SMEs will then be selected by an evaluation committee, which will assess whether the minimum criteria are met and assign a score based on various factors. These include the business potential of the idea, product/service development stage, level of innovation and defensibility, team expertise, competitive landscape and positioning, alignment with market and customer needs, market size, and the project’s relevance to future challenges.
The companies selected will then be able to participate upon payment of an administrative fee of €600 + VAT, which includes access to a wide range of services.
Furthermore, as part of the call, to further enhance the presence of innovative start-ups and SMEs within the Innovation District, IEG, in collaboration with its partners, will also award the Lorenzo Cagnoni Award for Green Innovation, a special plaque to the three most innovative and significant projects on display.
The winning Start-Ups of the 2024 edition
Cosmic ray-based probes to detect underground water leaks, AI-powered bins for automated waste sorting, flameless waste combustion technologies, and many more ideas. Over the years, dozens upon dozens of innovations have been presented by start-ups and scaleups across a wide range of sectors (recycling, waste, decarbonisation, water, farming, polymers, energy efficiency, biodiversity). Among them are the winners of the 2024 Lorenzo Cagnoni Award for Green Innovation.
Founded in 2020 in Faenza after three years of research in the laboratories of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, AgroMateriae focuses on valorisation and integrated waste management services. Its core idea? To extract new, sustainable raw materials from natural waste, innovatively repurposing agro-industrial by-products and creating high-tech biofillers suitable for a variety of applications.
SMUSH Materials, established in Milan in 2024, is on a mission to rethink packaging. Using the natural technologies of mycelium, the root structure of fungi, it transforms agricultural by-products into a new packaging material that is compostable at the end of its life, self-extinguishing, and waterproof, offering superior mechanical performance to the polystyrene used for packaging
Operating since 2023 within the Department of Chemistry at Sapienza University of Rome, Re4real has developed a chemical process capable of turning post-consumer plastic back into a resource, transforming the polymer into its primary constituents – monomers – using ordinary pressure and temperature.
- Recommended for you: Reuse or Recycle? The experience of Re4Real
The winning Start-Ups of the 2023 edition
Among the winners of the Lorenzo Cagnoni Award for Green Innovation 2023 is 3Bee, founded in 2016 in Trezzo sull’Adda, in the province of Milan: using pollinators as bioindicators, this nature-tech company collects and interprets data through innovative proprietary systems. It has developed the first integrated platform for biodiversity analysis, which combines satellite data and field sensors to provide a comprehensive and in-depth view of environmental health.
Mixcycling, based in Breganze, in the province of Vicenza, has been committed to revolutionising the traditional concept of plastic since 2020, offering eco-friendly solutions. Its mission is to transform waste into high-quality materials, upgrading organic plastic and transforming it into a range of versatile products and applications, ranging from food packaging to home accessories and more.
- Recommended for you: 5 European Start-Ups not to be missed
Lastly, OXOCO, headquartered in Bari since 2021, uses flameless oxy-combustion technology, a combustion process without flames, carried out under pressure at very high temperatures and in an oxygen atmosphere. In this way, also thanks to its relatively low costs, it offers an effective solution to the waste problem, which is transformed into vitrified slags while enabling energy recovery and the natural capture of CO₂.
Article written by Maria Carla Rota
This blog is a joint project by Ecomondo and Renewable Matter
PUBBLICAZIONE
19/06/2025