Red Bull Basement is an international initiative dedicated to students and young innovators who want to transform an idea into a concrete project using technology and artificial intelligence. The programme includes national selections and a global final phase in which teams receive mentorship, technological support and the opportunity to develop their prototype. <\/p>\n\n
Previous editions have seen the emergence of projects that have enjoyed considerable success. Among those participating in Italy are Etrash, a start-up created within H-Farm College and founded by former students Filippo Casellato, Sebastiano Felicetti and Umberto Bolzoni, winners of Red Bull Basement Italy 2021, who created Mida, a smart bin that uses sensors and artificial intelligence to automatically recognise waste and direct it to the correct compartment. The solution is designed for high-traffic environments such as airports, stations, shopping centres and campuses, with the aim of reducing errors in separate waste collection and optimising waste management costs. <\/p>\n\n
Over the years, the project has undergone various developments and today the start-up has opened its first offices in Italy and Europe with the ambition of expanding internationally. Another interesting project is BatterIT, an Italian start-up developed by Andrea Berti and Andrea Miotto, winners of Red Bull Basement Italy 2024, who have developed a sustainable, economical and recyclable sodium battery that uses salt as its main material instead of lithium, with the aim of helping to make electric mobility technologies more accessible and sustainable. In this case, the project is still in the development phase, but it is a good example of the approach taken by the new generation of participants: analysis of real data, market research and use of AI from the early stages to validate ideas and build entry strategies. <\/p>\n\n
Applications are now open in Italy for Red Bull Basement 2026. The Italian national winner will be invited to participate in the world final in Silicon Valley (USA), where they will compete for a final prize of $100,000 in equity-free funding, along with a package of resources and tools designed to support the launch of their start-up. The 2026 edition of Red Bull Basement places even greater emphasis on supporting a new generation of innovators, helping them to turn their ideas into real projects through a combination of AI-based tools and human mentorship. Red Bull Basement is open to anyone aged 18 or over who is resident in Italy. Applications will remain open until 5 April 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new edition of the global competition is accepting applications until 5 April, with the final to be held in Silicon Valley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":155174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1328],"tags":[1331,1137,1136],"companies":[3267],"journalist":[1518],"class_list":["post-155182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-innovation-en","tag-italy-en","tag-startup-en-2","companies-red-bull-en","journalist-editorial-staff-en"],"featured_sizes_urls":{"thumbnail":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/unnamed-2-1.webp","width":150,"height":100,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"red bull innovazione"},"large":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/unnamed-2-1.webp","width":1024,"height":683,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"red bull innovazione"},"2048x2048":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/unnamed-2-1.webp","width":1200,"height":800,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"red bull innovazione"}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n