The 10 Italian Female Founders to follow in 2020
The 10 Female Founders to follow in 2020, selected by SheTech Italy. Their profiles differ for background and field. The order is random and is not ranking.
SheTech Italy is a community founded with the aim of supporting women in technology, digital and entrepreneurship, through networking events, workshops and professional opportunities.
- Sonia Longo Sormani – Aileens Pharma
Sonia, 39, after an international experience as Business Development Manager in Sinclair Pharmaceuticals ltd, founded in 2011 her first company, Claride Pharma SA, R&D company for prescription food supplements.
In 2018 she founded Aileens Pharma with the goal of providing effective, innovative and safe treatment for the main inflammatory skin diseases.
The biotech compound covered by an international patent involves the use of microorganisms. The first pathology under study is atopic dermatitis which is medical- treated, mainly corticosteroids, which are not free of side effects.
Aileens Pharma has received an investment from two Italian VCs, Panakes and Invitalia, thanks to which it has developed some formulations under registration as medical devices.
A pediatric clinical trial for the treatment of atopic dermatitis is ongoing. This disease involves more than 400 million patients (90% pediatric) in the world with an increasing turnover of more than 5.5 bln per year.
- Enrica & Mariolina Sangalli – BRS Beauty
Enrica and Mariolina Sangalli are the co-founders of BRS Beauty, a startup created in 2019 in Paris with the aim to develop new brands in the beauty industry.
A project that combines a passion for beauty, a spirit of innovation, entrepreneurial vision and technical-scientific skills of a third co-founder.
The company promotes beauty as a perfect balance of body, mind and spirit. Its aim is to identify market opportunities and relevant trends and to create innovative brand identities with long term B2C and B2B value.
Enrica and Mariolina have a strong background in the cosmetic and luxury industry, a wide international exposure, and a significant business education.
They both graduated from Bocconi University. In 2020 they will launch the first BRS Beauty concept: a new D2C skincare brand dedicated to women with a dynamic lifestyle.
Chiara Marconi and Federica Tiranti are the co-founders of Chitè, the first DTC underwear brand to have developed an online 3D customization platform.
Chiara, born in ‘92, studied International Studies at the Sant’Anna High School which led her to live 5 years in 7 different countries and to work for the UN.
From 2018, Chitè has been working on the affordable luxury segment, in particular the underwear market, with a community of over 30.000 women.
All garments are made in Italy by independent craftsmen according to the Slow Couture philosophy which guarantees sustainability and transparency.
A new limited-edition capsule comes out every month.
The startup, with a team of 8 young talents, has just closed an overfunded seed round and is expanding into the English market.
Stefania, 29, graduated cum laude in Computer Engineering at Roma Tre. She is co-founder of Filo, a startup born in 2014 with the aim to create IoT hardware and software solutions.
Stefania is currently head of Mobile Development and coordinator of new technology and product developments.
Filo is born to create solutions that help people to have their objects under control. The first product created is Filo, an intelligent key tag that helps people not to forget what they matter.
Filo’s team has 20 people and now is committed with their most recent challenge: Tata Pad, the anti-abandonment solution for children in cars equipped with intelligent alarm systems. The new product of the Filo’s family is the winner of the German Design Awards 2020 and has been chosen among the best Italian products presented at the CES2020.
Currently, the startup had a turnover of over € 4M in 2019 and is growing rapidly on international markets.
Mirna Pacchetti and Marzia Di Meo are marketing experts and market researchers. They founded InTribe after 5 years of collaboration as strategic consultants. Their innovative startup has the aim to develop a subscription-based platform to deliver market surveys in real-time (thanks to a proprietary algorithm) by using gamification.
Mirna and Marzia realized that traditional market research was no longer sufficient to understand the insights of digital and evolved consumers. Hence the idea to improve them using artificial intelligence and gamification.
In 2019 Intribe tested the MVP on the Italian market. In 2020 they are exploring the foreign market and looking for business angels to support them, thus reducing go-to-market times and becoming scalable by September current year.
The Team is their strength, it is composed mainly of women: a data scientist, a big data developer, a senior data analyst, an anthropologist and a psychologist with marketing and innovation skills.
Silvia, 29, is the co-founder of Meracinque, an agri-company specialized in Carnaroli Micro-natural Rice production.
She has a degree in Business Economics and a master in Agricultural and Food Economics, and multiple experiences as Export Manager. In 2017, she focus herself in boosting the family business. Meracinque is focused on the Rice cultivation, promoting a real Micro-natural Revolution.
The Meracinque team is composed of 5 sisters: Silvia as Sales Manager, Margherita and Benedetta, as Marketing & Product Development chief, Anna and Vittoria as accounting and financial referents.
Elena, 35, is an engineer with strong experience in Construction and Real Estate. She attended an executive MBA where she met 3 friends with whom she founded Revo and launched mOOve. Its main purpose is making cycling infrastructure more widespread and thus contributing to a more sustainable and healthier planet.
mOOve revolutionizes the concept of a cycle path that becomes a box, simple to realize, technological, scalable and sustainable, using recycled plastics and doesn’t generate waste.
It is covered by a patent, in the prototyping phase, it will be an innovative product-service for public administrations, “greenfield” developers, campus, also able to generate revenues for any kind of owner.
Her next step is to get certified to enter a market that today has extreme needs of new sustainable mobility models. Her hashtag: #itistimetomOOve
- Arianna Ortelli – Novis
Arianna Ortelli, 23, is a Business Administration student at the University of Turin with a strong passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In April 2019 she founded NOVIS, a social impact startup, to concretely realize the idea of a gaming platform that can be used without sight. BlindConsole is the first virtual console that is 100% accessible to the blind.
For the first time a blind person can experience autonomously the physical and emotional dimension of a video-game through touch and hearing, thanks to an innovative joystick, connected to the mobile phone.
The team includes 3 engineers from the Politecnico di Torino and also involves blind people in the development, design and testing phases.
Today the team is engaged in the development of the software platform and games, with the objective for 2020 to sell the first beta to the Italian Blinds Associations.
Lucia Pallottino is currently Associate Professor at the Centro di Ricerca “E. Piaggio” and the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione at the University of Pisa.
She has been Visiting Scholar at M.I.T., Visiting Researcher at UCLA and she is involved in various research and technology transfer projects, along with being the co-founder of Proxima Robotics srl.
One of the most complex and expensive components to make for a mobile robotic system is the navigation system. Proxima Robotics is developing an innovative navigation system, which allows the robot to move in space from a starting point to one of arrival in safety, avoiding obstacles and optimizing the path.
The strengths of the product are the use of state-of-the-art sensors, a “plug & play” perspective and a competitive cost. The product is aimed at robot manufacturing companies (B2B) and the company’s current goal is to validate the product together with an early adopter company.
The team is currently made up of 5 people including 3 co-founders with a wide background covering various applications in the robotics field: from logistics to autonomous cars, from humanoids to aerial and underwater vehicles.
Tiziana Monterisi is an architect and an active, responsive ambassador of bio-architecture. She promotes new housing models that can be considered a proper alternative solution to petroleum materials.
She believes in the creation of a different Architectural approach, that is ethically, culturally, technically and deeply committed in transforming the territory, the city and the house into a life-living organism.
In 2016 she founded RiceHouse, an innovative start-up with the aim to transform rice production waste into 100% natural building materials. RiceHouse is working mainly in Italy and it is composed of 8 collaborators, for the most architects.
RiceHouse is a market hub, a focal point for several existing Italian farms and companies. Its innovative procedures and know-how can be replicated in many areas, mainly where rice is produced.
- Lise Arlot – Feral Horses | Menzione speciale
Lise Arlot was born in France in 1994. In 2012, she moved to London to pursue her business studies and to live in the second biggest art market hub in the world.
After her BA in Business and Marketing from the University of Greenwich and her Ma in Luxury Brand Management from Regent’s University, Lise Arlot co-founded Feral Horses, a crowdfunding platform to co-own art in 2017 with like-minded first-time entrepreneurs.
The startup’s mission is to turn every art lovers into owners of artworks and, to date, the platform has sold over half a million dollars worth of art in shares to thousands of art enthusiasts.
Lise’s role consists of sourcing thought-provoking artworks to co-owned and managing the co-owned collection of artworks which includes works by Banksy, Patrick Hughes, and Jago to only name a few.
Lise is also an Art Business Guest Lecturer for several prestigious institutions such as Christie’s Education and Sotheby’s Institute.
Thank you SheTech for the original article.