Maritime Ventures is opening its Founders Program for early-stage maritime founders with a validated idea. You get venture-building expertise, hands-on idea shaping, initial capital, customer access, and a direct path to up to €3.4M in equity investment from selected Maritime Ventures shareholders, to build Italy's next maritime software company. Apply by August 28, 2026.
We are open to any B2B software venture digitizing SMEs in the Italian naval and port industry. A few example focus areas:
A sense of the scope we build for. These companies came out of Maritime Ventures and are now live, with customers, capital and pilots running.
AI-native platform that opens access to public grants and supply-chain finance for Italian SMEs, automating discovery, application and reporting.
Visit site →AI platform that automates compliance documentation and regulatory tracking for shipbuilding suppliers, cutting prep time by up to 80%.
Visit site →Decision-intelligence platform that orchestrates transport across fleets and terminals, capturing real-world constraints to cut port congestion.
Visit site →We review every application against the same rubric, so every founder is compared on substance, not slide design. We ask all applicants to submit the same two artefacts: a 12-slide pitch deck in our standard format, and a short structured intake form. Skip the 40-page memo. Skip the polished startup-school deck. Just answer the twelve questions, clearly.
Format: PDF or HTML · 16:9 · max 12 slides · max 10MB · one point per slide · headline message at the top of each slide.
Build your own deck to this exact structure:
A short structured form that feeds our application review, so we can filter, sort and score consistently. You'll upload your 12-slide PDF inside the form.
Applications missing either artefact, or that don't follow the 12-slide structure, are returned with a note before review, not rejected outright. We'd rather you resubmit clean than be scored on the wrong canvas.
Italian maritime is a €216B economy entering its digital decade, yet the founders building for it are scattered, under-capitalised and far from the buyers who need them.
The Founders Program is our answer: a single door for the most promising early-stage maritime ideas, with the capital, customers and craft to turn one into a real company.
So every founder is scored on substance, not slide design. It also tells us you can communicate crisply, which is half the founder job.
No. Please re-cast it into our format. It takes an hour and dramatically improves your odds.
No. You can apply as a solo founder, and we can help you build out the team.
Italy-based or willing to relocate.
Both. The €50k is split between grant and equity depending on your startup's stage.
Apply anyway. Focus areas guide our outreach, not selection. What matters is that the venture is maritime, digital and B2B.
You keep the IP and the network, and we stay in touch.
Yes, if it's still pre-seed and you haven't raised institutional capital.
Deck and form in English or Italian.
The application deadline is August 28, 2026. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so earlier submissions receive earlier feedback.
Apply by August 28, 2026.
