Startup Villages to promote villages in Italy and Japan as ideal destinations for startups and sustainable startup ecosystem

For generations, Italy has been the hub for entrepreneurs, and due to this the Italian economy is one of the most developed countries in the world and is a pioneer in fashion, automotive, agriculture, dairy, among others. Italy has a grand history for art & culture; played a crucial role in the renaissance in Europe, a crucial role in the post-world war industrial revolution and formation of the European Union.

To encourage reverse migration to villages, the Startup Villages, an initiative that was started a few years ago by social entrepreneur Indian American Dr.Tausif Malik, is aiming to promote Italian Villages as an ideal location for startups. The idea behind the initiative is to create unique startups and take Italy to the next level and achieve what Silicon Valley did to the American Startup ecosystem. The initiative is currently run as a joint venture in conjunction with TMA Worldwide & Omar Business Consultancy to promote Italian Villages as an ideal location for startups.

Today, Startup Villages announced its plans to promote villages in Italy and Japan as an ideal destination for startups and sustainable development. As part of the promotion effort, the Startup Villages team will host one of its kind webinars to create an awareness program with over 7600 Italian Mayors and Japanese Mayors, investors, and startups.

Dr. Tausif Malik, the founder of Startup Villages, said: “It was summer of 2008 when I read CNN report that Italian villages launched an initiative to sell properties at 1$ an incentive to repopulate the dying Italian villages. Approximately 7600 Italian villages started offering the same scheme to invite new residents. Many people bought and refurbished the homes they purchased in these Italian villages, but guess what majority of them were holidays homes and this didn’t trigger economic activity. Hence, I started toying with the idea of creating an economic system and blending my knowledge of Reverse Migration with the Italian villages and thus the idea of Startup Villages, I started documenting.”

In 2020, Dr, Malik met Stefano and Karim founders of Omar Business Development, Ita-ly and they signed a strategic partnership for Halal Angels Network (Angel network established to tap the 5 Trillion USD Halal consumer market). As confidence grew, Malik proposed to them my initiative Startup Villages with them and they were all excited. They agreed to start pitching the Startup Villages idea to the Mayors of villages, Italy; that instead of selling houses to holiday-makers, let’s pitch and sell to startups. Italian villages offer beautiful landscape, pollution-free, no traffic, access to the European market, and North African market, cost-effective, and most important more leisure time with family & friends.

Karim & Stefano said that “Our villages are our heritage & pride, and through this program, we would take our villages into the future with sustainable & holistic development.

In 2018, Malik had established a Crypto mining training program (Bitcoin training program) based on his theory of reverse migration, where youth from Indian villages would be trained in association with Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and would be offered crypto mining rigs. This would create a sustainable economic environment in the villages of India and make India the largest crypto mining hub in the world. But, due to policy initiatives, this program was shelved.

In addition, Omar Business Development is actively working to help Italian companies tap the $5 trillion Halal Consumer market, Halal Tourism, and promote Italy as the gateway to Mediterranean and North African Market.