Avellino hosts Start Cup Campania 2025 finals

On Friday, October 24, 2025, the historic headquarters of the Irpinia Sannio Chamber of Commerce (Piazza Duomo 5, Avellino) will host the finals of Start Cup Campania 2025, a business plan competition promoted by the Campania university system.

The day opens at 11:30 a.m. with a networking and business matching moment between the finalist teams and stakeholders. At 2:30 p.m., the competition kicks off with institutional greetings by Marco Consales, director of Start Cup Campania; Gerardo Canfora, rector of the University of Sannio; and Girolamo Pettrone, extraordinary commissioner of C.C.I.A.A. Irpinia Sannio.

From 3 p.m., the finalists' pitches will take place. At 4 p.m. a roundtable discussion "Young people, artificial intelligence and startups: building the future of innovation in Campania" is scheduled, moderated by journalist Giovanna Fusco. Participants will include Valeria Fascione, councillor for Research, Innovation and Startups of the Campania Region; Emilio De Vizia, president of Confindusatria Campania; Andrea Di Girolamo, STMicroelectronics; Valentina Russo, founding partner of Logogramma; Angelo Giuliana, general manager of Meditech; and Nicola Massarotti, CTS Master MEIM - MiT, University of Naples Parthenope.

At 5:30 p.m. the winners of Start Cup Campania will be announced and awarded. These are the eleven finalists of the 2025 edition: AgriKer (University of Sannio), BRAVE Biotech (University of Salerno), CIPS (University of Salerno), Clinequal (University Federico II), ErgoShirt (University Vanvitelli), HybrHand (University Federico II), SecretomaGel (University Federico II), ImmunoMoDiLab (University Federico II), JANUS (University Federico II), RethaiN (University Federico II), Sporavax (University Federico II).

There are five cash prizes: 5,000 euros to the first-place winner, 3,000 euros to the second-place winner, 2,000 euros to the third-place winner and 1,000 euros to the fourth- and fifth-place winners. Also up for grabs is access to the national final of the National Innovation Award (PNI). The winning team will also gain direct access to the final of the Innovation Village Award 2025.

Alongside the main prizes, special awards were established with prizes in contributions and services.

In addition, three student-only teams, selected from the teams submitted this year for this category, will compete for the Special Student Award "Mario Raffa." They are SongSphere (Federico II), Blinko (Federico II), Ricotta Flow (Salerno).

Start Cup Campania is the longest-running competition among innovative university-based business projects, promoted by Campania's Federico II, Luigi Vanvitelli, Parthenope, Suor Orsola Benincasa, Sannio di Benevento, Salerno and L'Orientale universities with the aim of spreading the culture of enterprise among students, doctoral students and researchers. The competition is part of the National Innovation Award, organized by PNI Cube, and takes the form of a collaborative network among universities, incubators, public entities and players in the regional innovation ecosystem.

Program