The Metropolitan City of Turin is partner of the European project Fast Forward Europe- FFWD Europe, financed by The Interreg Europe 2014-2020 Program.

A total of 8 partners from different European regions are involved in the project. The main objective of the project is to improve the policies and instruments to support the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s).

This goal will be achieved through exchange of good practices that will contribute to impact on policy instruments and to enable them to develop new programs for business acceleration.

At this stage of the project, the partners are sharing and collecting examples of good practices in three main sectors:

• SME’s Acceleration
• Internationalization of SME’s
• Access to funding

Among all good practices currently identified in the metropolitan area and published on the policy learning platform of the program, we point out FOUNDAMENTA , promoted by SocialFare– centre for social innovation. This is the first Italian acceleration program dedicated to start-ups and companies with a social impact.

FUNDAMENTA is targeted at those best entrepreneurial solutions that answer in innovative way to the contemporary social challenges. The program offers concrete support services to companies and start-ups.

Since 2015, this initiative has lead to an important impact in the territory:

• More than 40 start-ups accelerated
• More than 1,7 M.€ invested in the start-ups
• More than 200 new jobs created
• Activation of the first “Impact seed Fund” in Italy
• More than 1000 applications received from whole Europe

The program is aimed at constituted Start-ups with a prototype tested or produced on the market and companies that stand out for the highly innovative product/service offer, in the following sectors: welfare, Healthcare, education, cultural heritage, circular economy, Food & Agriculture.