California

Silicon Valley represents the heart of the global innovation ecosystem: in the 70 km long peninsula, which extends from San José to San Francisco, is inhabited by over 3 million people and has highest percentage of foreigners in the whole United States, is home to 150 ‘unicorns’ (companies with a value of over 1 billion dollars), out of a total of 300 worldwide, around 30,000 startups (the number is growing) and 43% of investments by Venture Capitalist in the United States pile up there, with a combined amount of more than 150 billion dollars a year.

In 2015, Emilia-Romagna Region – the only one in italy – decided to launch a program to facilitate the access of startups and PMI from its territory to Silicon Valley, an opportunity which it then expanded to other entities in the regional ecosystem.