Wine in Action is an acceleration program to support the growth of startups operating in the wine sector, created by LifeGate Way in collaboration with Milan Wine Week, the innovative event dedicated to the world of wine, which for seven editions has been a stage and catalyst for industry news and a fundamental platform for the meeting between operators, the general public and international horizons. The call for startups was created with the aim of accompanying companies that want to invest in innovative and sustainable solutions to face the environmental and social changes taking place, facilitating collaboration between startups, investors, and experts in the sector.
Wine in Action is aimed at startups and scaleups operating in the wine sector and developing innovative and sustainable solutions, and also at cross-industry companies that want to be part of the change and support the development of the selected companies. The opening of the call is scheduled for 25 June, the date from which it will be possible to send the application. Applicants will have until the end of August to apply.
“There are many challenges on which the future of the wine sector in Italy is at stake: from climate change to new consumption habits, from technological innovations applied to viticulture, to new precision cultivation systems through the digital transition,” explains Federico Gordini, president of MWW Group, in a note. Those who want to work in the fascinating world of wine need to acquire an increasingly specific preparation to become competitive both in the domestic market where there are many competitors, but also abroad where wine producers have multiplied over the years. With this incubation and acceleration program, we will entrust the best experts in the field with the task of training the selected companies with a multi-disciplinary approach. An opportunity that we have made possible thanks to the collaboration and experience of realities such as Lifegate Way and Milan Wine Week”.
The aim of the project is precisely to transfer the right tools to achieve a winning position in light of the changes taking place in the context of wine and spirits consumption, which in recent years has been redistributed to the advantage of an increasing demand for sparkling wines in non-national markets. According to data from the Nomisma Wine Monitor, sales of sparkling wines in the world increased by 217% from 2010 to 2017. A radical transformation is underway that passes through the general contraction of consumption, according to the Italian Wine Union in the USA, the main sales market for Italy, wine sales last November lost as much as 11% compared to the previous month, up to emerging trends such as no/low alcohol drinks.
“Creating a system is a prerogative for the launch of innovation projects and in the creation of ecosystems to support Open Innovation,” comments Omar Fulvio Bertoni, CEO of LifeGate Way. The choice of Milan Wine Week as a strategic vertical partner in the wine sector, one of the most important in Italy, with a turnover of 21.5 billion euros in direct turnover, 10 billion euros in exports and 2300 companies involved (Source: Supply Chain Study, for the Wines, Spirits and Vinegars sectors, carried out by Nomisma for Federvini 2024), represents a perfect alliance for our expertise in the world of sustainability. Together, we will create an Innovation Challenge aimed at identifying solutions with a high social and/or environmental impact, promoting innovation applied to the circular economy in this sector.
The areas of the call
The Wine in Action program aims to give concrete answers to the ongoing climate changes by offering solutions and cultivation techniques with reduced environmental impact such as precision viticulture designed to optimize the use of resources such as water, fertilizers and pesticides, reducing environmental impact and improving the yield and quality of the grapes.
A need that is now indispensable given the increasingly worrying scenario characterized by extreme events and droughts, factors that can undermine the success of a vintage. According to Legambiente, in the last decade in Italy there have been 946 high-impact meteorological phenomena such as floods and floods. Episodes that are counterbalanced by the looming drought: according to data from the European network, with its average of 13-14°, January was the hottest month ever recorded since measurements began.
The course will also focus on a number of key areas of the wine sector including: vineyard management: the implementation of monitoring and control systems to optimize vineyard management, from pruning to irrigation, to harvesting; winemaking and production: development of new technologies and processes to improve wine quality, reduce waste and increase production efficiency; marketing and sales: use of digital tools and data analysis to improve the promotion and sale of wine to new markets and consumers; logistics and traceability: implementation of traceability systems to ensure the transparency of the production chain and the food safety of products; e-commerce and online commerce: development of e-commerce platforms to facilitate the direct sale of wine to end consumers; food and wine tourism: creation of innovative and valuable food and wine experiences to attract tourists and promote wine-growing territories; circular economy: development of solutions for waste management and recycling of materials in the wine sector; Blockchain and emerging technologies: application of blockchain technologies to ensure the traceability, transparency and authenticity of wine; artificial intelligence and machine learning: use of AI and machine learning to optimize production processes, predict yields, and identify new market opportunities.
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