The number of innovative startups in Italy rises from 7,866 to 9,647 between 2017 and 2018, which is 22.6% up than last year. Italy is experiencing surge in the number of innovative startups and their employees over the past year. The number of innovative Italian startups are moving towards 10,000. In the last 12 months, the Italian workforce of startups has grown more than proportionally compared to the increase in the number of companies: currently innovative  startups in Italy employ 52,512 operating members and employees, which is up 33.2% compared to the same date in 2017.

Almost a quarter of the innovative startups present at national level (2,368 units) are located in Lombardy, which confirms the most populous region, followed by (1,027 companies), and Emilia-Romagna (919). In the provincial ranking, Milan is in the lead with 1,669 startups, followed by Rome (916) and Naples (330), which for the first time skips Turin from the third place.

In terms of employment, at the end of June 2018, there were 3,875 innovative startups with at least one employee (298 more than at the end of March).At the end of the third quarter of 2018, the shareholders of the 9,498 innovative startups for which this figure is available, exceeded 40,000 (40,886), 1,561 more than in the previous quarter (+ 4.5%).