Sviluppo Italia SpA is the National Development Agency for the Mezzogiorno area (Southern Italy). It is a venture capital firm specializing in seed/start-up, early stage, incubation, emerging growth, and growth capital financing. The firm seeks to invest in small and medium sized companies in Southern Italy. In addition, it supports national and international acquisitions, establish joint ventures to expand nationally or international acquisitions, develop new product or services, and strengthen current business structure. The firm provides enterprise systems development consulting services to accelerate the development of enterprises with high growth potential moving from the start-up stage. It also assists in bridge financing, national and European funds, and grants allocation to companies in manufacturing and services industries. Other services provided by Sviluppo Italia include: Agro-Industry services, supporting the agriculture and forestry sector through distribution of state aid and investments in share capital; Foreign development, to attract and develop foreign investments in Italy; Enterprise Creation and Promotion of Self-employment, to assist new enterprises through the planning stage, project evaluation, disbursement of financial assistance, tutoring services, and monitoring of investments; Internationalization, managing tans-national co-operation projects; as well as providing consulting services to international bodies and institutions on developmental policies; Special Legislation, management of funds on behalf of the Italian government; Experimental Projects and Programs, establishing commissioned work from public and private bodies such as science parks and spin-offs from research and large firms; Services for Territorial Development assisting local authorities with territorial planning and management and organizing research, training, and consulting services for local development projects; Tourism, to promote tourism destinations by offering complete packages of services and attractions; and Business Services, to promote and co-ordinate the management of SME programs and supervision of the network of business incubators and management the post-tutoring program. Sviluppo Italia is also involved in research and development centers and enterprises to develop the Net Economy in Southern Italy. It was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy.