Milan is famous around the world for the quality of its industrial design and as a capital of fashion and style (and luxury shopping). However, Milan is also a business and finance center that is adding to its international reputation as an emergent biotech hub. With a population of 3 million in its metro area, Milan is a dense urban territory at the center of trade and transportation networks crossing the Po Plain and connecting Northern and Mediterranean Europe. It is a storied and cultured city (Leonardo da Vinci lived there for 18 years) which can be easily reached by plane and train, and quickly traversed by subway, bicycle, tram, and bus. The city is a leading player in the European events and conventions marketplace, hosting major fairs, scientific congresses, and international sports events, like the upcoming Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Thanks to its enabling factors, namely eight international universities (Statale, Politecnico, Bocconi, Cattolica, Bicocca, IULM, San Raffaele, Humanitas) producing research and supplying STEM graduates to a buzzing ecosystem animated by startups, incubators, accelerators (including Berkeley Skydeck) and new tech zones (such as MIND, the Milan Innovation District, which hosted the World Expo a decade ago and where more than 1,000 international researchers are already at work in the Human Technopole), Milan is attracting venture capital and private equity, particularly in genomics and digital health, and working to become a transnational prime mover in Life Sciences.
The Lombard city has hosted the latest edition of CPHI, the world's largest pharma fair with 62,000 delegates representing labs and corporations, and will host BIO Europe, an event connecting biotech cities with Life Sciences companies, in March 2025. The Milan metropolitan area is home to more than 250 pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Currently, Milan and its pharma industry are among the fastest growing in the EU. In 2022, the Lombard life sciences industry had grown by 17.5% in terms of value-added, compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, and the overall value of its production is now worth €74.5 billion. In 2023, Lombardy exported €9.8 billion of pharma products, more than Île de France or Catalunya (data from Assolombarda).
In 2020, the city's promotional organization, Milano & Partners (which is also in charge of destination marketing through the YesMilano brand) has been entrusted by the Municipality and the Chamber of Commerce to start investment attraction and soft-landing activities. It has since then prioritized the life sciences and fintech industries: "These are very important industries in which we feel that the city can offer an important value proposition to foreign entities," said director general Fiorenza Lipparini.
Milan's profile of R&D investment, including the generous grants and tax incentives made available by the Italian government and local institutions and stakeholders, can now be fully explored with the YesMilano Innovation Map, an open-access platform giving accurate intelligence on the ecosystem. Built in collaboration with Dealroom, it provides a real-time glance at the Life Sciences firms that are present with their investments and personnel in Milan and Lombardy to foster data-driven policy for innovation.
Take a look at the YesMilano Innovation Map.
This article was created by YesMilano with Insider Studios.
