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Last week Milan saw its ‘Pitch Slam’ event, organised by the Guidwire Group. Threeplicate, an Italian startup whose mission is to create “software that works,” beat out stiff competition to take first place. Runners-up at the Pitch Slam included Sentimetrix, a startup that helps measure sentiments or opinions expressed via electronic media, and Pantea, which allows companies to build tailored mobile media marketing solutions.

The Innovate!2010 Pitch Slam in Milan is one of over 20 Pitch Slam events that Guidewire Group is hosting this year across Europe and the United States. At each Pitch Slam, startups are evaluated by a panel of expert judges using the G/Score, Guidewire Group’s proprietary assessment methodology for evaluating startup success and business viability. The judges at the Milan Pitch Slam were: Maria Teresa Aviles, project manager at the University Incubator of Politecnico di Milano; Evan Nisselson, founder and CEO of Digital Railroad; and Matteo Rizzi, innovation leader at SWIFT.

The G/Scores will be aggregated from all of the Pitch Slams, normalized across markets, stages and segments, and then ranked to determine the Innovate!100. Innovate!2010 partners with market leaders like Best Buy, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, O2, RIM, Oracle and SWIFT and serves as a platform for these corporations to quickly identify and partner with high-potential startups.

Congratulations to all of the startups that were invited to present in Milan:

DriveK: Car configuration platform designed to change the way people select, configure, compare and buy their new car.

GET Corporation: Geo-location service to help customers find the nearest taxi driver.

Intelligrate: Application to detect anomalies in user behavior during online banking transactions to prevent fraud.

LiquidWeb: Creator of WiTube, an interactive lamp delivers Web content like podcasts and news through a wireless Internet connection.

LM: Monetization tool for code and content owners to get paid wherever their work appears on the open web.

Noesis: Revenue optimization platform with automatic real-time learning and adapting capabilities.

Pantea: Provides pre-integrated tools that allow customers to build tailored mobile media marketing, mobile media and social media solutions.

Pervactive: Developer of a new genre of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) that uses a proprietary, patented MMPGTech engine to allow users to play the same game on a PC and on a mobile device.

Sentimetrix: Technology framework to measure sentiments or opinions expressed in electronic media, such as news, blogs or newsgroups.

Spreaker: Social web radio: a platform for creating and broadcasting audio content over the Internet.

Threeplicate: Simplifies and automates the software UI localization process by integrating with existing tools already in use at software development firms.

TheStartup.eu has partnered with Innovate!2010 to bring you an exciting opportunity and we want to invite you to get involved.

On Monday, April 19^th, at 10am you are invited to participate in the Innovate!2010 Pitch Slam Milan being held at Assolombarda (via Chiaravalle 8 ) for free.

Innovate!2010 is a global competition to identify top technology, media and communications startups from around the world, based on the G/Score assessment methodology. It is designed for companies that have already been established and have a working alpha. Upon successful application, Innovate!100 semi-finalists are invited to participate in the local Pitch Slam to compete to become one of the Innovate!100 and benefit from a year’s worth of global visibility, validation from global investors and partners, and a share of awards valued over $1 million.

You can see what an Innovate! Pitch Slam is like by checking out the videos from prior Pitch Slams in Amsterdam, Dublin, Madrid, Zaragoza, London, Helsinki, Berlin, Barcelona and Tel Aviv (http://www.innovate100.com/blog). The companies confirmed to pitch in Milan include:

• BASE16
• Caja Fuerte Virtual
• Threeplicate
• GET Corporation
• LM
• Noesis:
• Pantea
• SentiMetrix

Local entrepreneurs, investors, journalists and technology executives are invited to attend to have breakfast, support their favorite startup and network for FREE, but register here (http://bit.ly/innovatestartupeu)  right away because spaces are limited.

Innovate! is a great program that will deliver up and coming start-ups global exposure for up to a year, validation from potential investors and partners, and potentially a share of over $1M in prizes, so we encourage you to get involved right away.

After Massimiliano Magrini’s resignation from Google Italy, the company promptly answered to the italian press. Italian financial website Affaritaliani collected a few sentences.

“We are sorry to hear of Massimiliano Magrini’s resignation, but we have a robust and consolidated organization that will allow us to manage the transition”.
“On the other hand, we are very happy to see Magrini’s entrepreneurial choice, which happens to be focused in the area of internet startups, where Google comes from and still operates in. To sustain economy on the web, the whole ecosystem has to evolve”.

The choice for Magrini’s successor is “in progress”, check back this site for updates on the story.

Breaking News: Massimiliano Magrini, Google Italy’s country manager just resigned from the company.
Magrini, who helped the start up of Google in Italy in 2002 after working with Altavista, announced he will start a venture capital fund and a startup incubator.

“I will develop in Italy what venture capitalists are already doing in Usa”.

Joined by 20 other key players in the italian internet tech scene, he aims to bring to Europe a Silicon Valley-like mindset, providing help as well as funding, to very early stage companies.
From the few sentences we could grab he seems quite determined to do so.

“The timing and the place are right. I’m having great feedback from the financial community. I will create a real new Silicon Valley in Milan”.

We will update you on his projects as soon as we have more news.

Venture capital in Europe in not dead.
Innogest, a $120 million fund with offices in Milan, Padova and Torino, just reminded us that VC deals are possible, injecting the huge sum of $8 Million into BeeTV.

“This is the single largest investment our firm has ever made,” said Marco Pinciroli, Innogest CEO. “This fact alone shows how much we believe in beeTV, with the concept, its management, and its business strategy.”

“We already knew we had the most innovative product on the market. Now we have the means to push it to the next level,” commented Rodolfo Hecht, beeTV’s Chairman. “We are proud of being one of the few companies that is able to announce a major VC deal in today’s frozen market.”

The Milan-based startup launched in 2006, and is now working towards its 1.5 release, they already have offices in Tel Aviv and Los Angeles and claim to have partnerships with the most important TV networks worldwide.

They recently pitched their product at DEMO08, you can see the video here:

The aim of BeeTV is to help you choose what you watch more easily, they will replace your usual tv guide with personal recommendation based on your taste and mood. The algorithm team is led by the well-regarded Gavin Potter – the recommendation guru. Their commercial operations are expected to begin in 2010.

The potential is really huge and I’m pretty sure the investment will pay off. Providers will surely be interest in their offerings that can integrate PC, TV and even mobile phones in a whole new experience.

You can read more about their products here.