Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, visiting Catania, today went to the TIM #WCAP accelerator, accompanied by the mayor of the city, Enzo Bianco.
Giuseppe Recchi, Chairman of Telecom Italia, greeted Matteo Renzi in the accelerator premises, and presented some of the projects by young entrepreneurs that Telecom Italia is supporting and sustaining, to create businesses that are ready to enter the market and create jobs.
TIM #WCAP is the programme that has been supporting talent and innovative ideas since 2009. With its four bases: Milan, Bologna, Rome and Catania it makes over 3,000 square metres of space in four lively areas of Italy available to young entrepreneurs who have won the right to be there by merit. Catania, in particular, is the reference point for the ecosystem of innovation in the South of Italy.
With over 7,000 ideas submitted, and 220 start-ups incubated and accelerated in the various editions, TIM #WCAP is the biggest database on innovation in Italy. A total of 4.5 million euros in enterprise grants have been awarded to date. Telecom Italia is also supporting the start-ups by enabling them to become certified suppliers on its own supplier list, and makes a "Basket of innovation" available to its business units, which can acquire the products developed by the start-ups.
As Telecom Italia Chairman Giuseppe Recchi emphasised at today's event, “TIM #WCAP was created to provide concrete support to innovation in our country. As Telecom Italia, we were the first – back in 2009 - to understand the need to support these young people and their ideas, and to transform them into businesses. Years have gone by and now Open Innovation is an integral part of the Telecom Italia industrial plan. In the last 5 years the group has been able to engage with thousands of homegrown Italian talent, convinced that this is the task of a major Italian company like Telecom Italia, because without innovation there is no growth”.
Catania, 28 November 2014
