{"id":22477,"date":"2026-11-04T13:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T12:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.areasciencepark.it\/startup-marathon-2026-ecco-le-11-finaliste\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T10:32:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:32:49","slug":"startup-marathon-2026-here-are-the-11-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.areasciencepark.it\/en\/startup-marathon-2026-here-are-the-11-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Marathon 2026: here are the 11 finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Agricultural waste turned into biofuels, algorithms to find alternatives to rare earths, early cancer diagnosis tests and innovative fuels for space propulsion: these are some of the technologies developed by the eleven finalists of <strong>Startup Marathon 2026<\/strong>. Promoted by <strong>Area Science Park<\/strong>, <strong>UniCredit Start Lab<\/strong> and <strong>Fondazione Comunica<\/strong>, the seventh edition will conclude on Tuesday 17 November at UniCredit\u2019s Tower Hall in Milan, where the companies will pitch live to an audience of businesses, investors and innovation experts.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The finalists were selected after the <strong>Startup Marathon Digital Day<\/strong>, in which <strong>33 startups, spin-offs and innovative SMEs<\/strong> presented video pitches to a jury of representatives from the promoters and partners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The finalists are:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li><strong>Agri-E<\/strong> (Padova): turns agricultural waste into bioethanol for on-farm use<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alkivio<\/strong> (Lecco): makes biocomposites from paper industry residues, as an alternative to plastic<\/li>\n<li><strong>FoodLife.next<\/strong> (Udine): uses predictive models to estimate food shelf life and reduce waste<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hyba<\/strong> (Bergamo): designs standard, solder-free lithium battery modules<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ichnovia<\/strong> (Rome): develops a non-invasive test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lachesis Bio<\/strong> (Milan): combines AI and biological models to speed up the evaluation of anti-aging compounds<\/li>\n<li><strong>MIRA<\/strong> (Brescia): uses microwaves to recover lithium from spent batteries<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mirron<\/strong> (Trieste): pioneers \u201cgene films\u201d, a platform combining molecular reagents and AI to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and disease biomarkers<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nantoo<\/strong> (Milan): turns green maintenance residues into standardised biomass<\/li>\n<li><strong>RARA Factory<\/strong> (Venice): identifies new materials to replace rare earths and other critical raw materials<\/li>\n<li><strong>Space Frontier<\/strong> (Naples): produces 3D-printed bio-based fuels for space propulsion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This edition set a record for participation: <strong>41 business support organisations submitted 121 innovative startups, and 76 applied to the contest<\/strong>. The B2B Open Innovation programme was also confirmed, with 64 applications; the most relevant companies will be able to hold one-to-one meetings with corporate partners to explore collaborations and joint development.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The winning startup will be offered a place in the UniCredit Start Lab acceleration programme, and the top three will be shortlisted for the national mission to CES in Las Vegas. Special awards include an international acceleration programme with Area Science Park and Angels for Women for the best majority-female-owned company, a support programme by WDA for the best early-stage startup, and the new AI Special Award promoted by CIAI. Supporting organisations will also compete in a ranking, with the top three gaining privileged access to the Executive MBA in Business Innovation at MIB Trieste School of Management, an opportunity also open to all finalist startups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Agricultural waste turned into biofuels, algorithms to find alternatives to rare earths, early cancer diagnosis tests and innovative fuels for space propulsion: these are some of the technologies developed by the eleven finalists of Startup Marathon 2026. Promoted by Area Science Park, UniCredit Start Lab and Fondazione Comunica, the seventh edition will conclude on Tuesday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[314,301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation-services","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Startup Marathon 2026: here are the 11 finalists - Area Science Park<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.areasciencepark.it\/en\/startup-marathon-2026-here-are-the-11-finalists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Startup Marathon 2026: here are the 11 finalists - Area Science Park\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Agricultural waste turned into biofuels, algorithms to find alternatives to rare earths, early cancer diagnosis tests and innovative fuels for space propulsion: these are some of the technologies developed by the eleven finalists of Startup Marathon 2026. 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