In the context of Women & the City - the festival promoted and conceived by the association Torino Città per le Donne (TOxD) with the aim of fostering gender perspectives in local policies, through meetings, events and reflections to make city spaces and practices accessible, inclusive and equitable - the award ceremony of the Spark Innovation contest, designed by TOxD with Politecnico di Torino and promoted by the business incubator I3P, was held on the morning of Friday 11 October 2024.
The competition was aimed at start-ups active in gender innovation: a unique opportunity dedicated to under-30 business ideas with female leadership or a focus on gender innovation in order to promote and support young female entrepreneurs and their ideas that aim to create a significant impact in gender equality. Fifteen start-ups from the Italian Piedmont region took part in the competition, from which 10 were selected by the jury and awarded a mentorship course promoted by I3P and Politecnico di Torino.
"This contest has been a success for us, in just one month of launch during the summer period we collected 15 valid applications and the 10 selected start-ups followed a mentorship course and were then evaluated by a jury of experts including female entrepreneurs, business angels and experts from the business world," said Alessandra Colombelli, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Management and Production Engineering at Politecnico di Torino and coordinator of the festival.
"Of these 10, four young companies were awarded prizes and received a cash prize, as well as prizes offered by the incubators in our area, in particular I3P, 2I3T, Réseau Entreprendre and SocialFare: they all offered a mentorship course for these start-ups", added Colombelli. "The candidate ideas have been designed by women for women, and therefore deal with many topical and heartfelt issues such as safety, well-being and health, all with an innovative slant. Many of these start-ups also base their business ideas on the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence."
The winning start-up
The winner of the competition, and the recipient of the €2,000 cash prize, was PinkRoad, an exclusively female-led platform that connects women to enable them to meet and tackle stretches of road and routes together that they would otherwise do alone. Giulia Sorriento, creator and founder of the start-up, collected the prize from the hands of Laura Morgagni of Fondazione Piemonte Innova, at the presence of Giuseppe Scellato, President of I3P, and Paola Mogliotti, Director of the Incubator.
The aim of PinkRoad is to enable the users of the platform, through their smartphones, to physically meet each other and share journeys on foot, in vehicles and taxis: the company of another woman will be a means of protection and greater safety. PinkRoad aims to reduce harassment and violence on the streets and in vehicles against women, improving the daily conditions of women in public spaces thanks to the community of ‘Pinkers’, and encouraging female empowerment: safe cities will allow women to make different choices, such as playing outdoor sports freely and using public transport more often. This will have a positive impact on health, time optimisation and also on work choices.
"Winning these awards was very special for me, because it means seeing the work we have been doing for two years now recognized, an award that was shared with the other participating companies, all startups that deal with social impact and in particular with gender impact and therefore being together in this too is the most precious part for me", commented Giulia Sorriento.
Special recognitions were also given to:
- Geen, an AI-based platform that facilitates access to sexual and reproductive health services for women and non-binary people with uteruses and streamlines their management for both professional and end-user users;
- DatAIMed, which offers an integrated solution to overcome the challenges of access and use of scientific evidence in clinical practice. The platform helps healthcare professionals overcome obstacles such as lack of time, difficulties in critical analysis of papers and language barriers;
- T-SURE, which aims to overcome the problems of suturing in abdominal hernia surgery: by bringing the two muscle flaps closer together, the device closes the lesion and ensures tissue regeneration, ensuring greater stability of the abdominal wall.
