Garipalli is a Bergamo start-up founded in 2021, active in the tourism and cultural sector with the aim of developing and disseminating play-recreational projects for the public, through the offer of interactive and itinerant gaming experiences that allow citizens and visitors to get to know and/or rediscover cities of art, historic villages and museums. The company’s mission is to create new forms of “phygital” entertainment – physical and digital – to innovate the traditional approach to cultural visits, using the lever of gamification to bring an increasingly younger audience closer to art and historical sites. Garipalli has developed a new and engaging model of engagement through the City Escapes: escape-room style gaming experiences – selectable from the wide offer present in the company’s marketplace and activated from mobile – which will allow players to collect clues and solve puzzles by moving around some of the most beautiful Italian cities of art including: Milan, Brescia, Bergamo, Monza, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Venice, Verona, Padua, Bologna, Ravenna, Parma, Turin, Rome, Naples and Genoa.
In 2023 Garipalli participated in InnovaCultura: the program was born from the collaboration between Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Cariplo and Unioncamere Lombardia – with the support of Cariplo Factory and Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore – with the aim of supporting cultural institutions and places to encourage the creation of new skills and an improvement of one’s activities, to be developed in an innovative way thanks to the launch of partnerships with companies active in the cultural and creative sector. After completing an incubation, acceleration and mentorship journey, in January 2024 during the InnovaCultura Match Making Day, Garipalli was awarded as “Best Start-up for Impact” with an investment of 130,000 euros to support its growth by Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore, strategic and operational arm of Fondazione Cariplo in the field of impact investing.
Furthermore, in September 2024 Garipalli ranked first in the ranking – published by Regione Lombardia and Unioncamere Lombardia – with the names of the cultural and creative businesses that will benefit from a non-repayable contribution from InnovaCultura to support their innovative proposals.
Business model
Garipalli has created an infotainment platform dedicated to the valorization of cultural heritage and the discovery of Italian cities, through the offer of both real and digital immersive experiences; in fact, City Escapes melt digital innovation with places and people, transforming city streets and squares into real “game arenas”. Players (travellers, tourists, citizens and families) through an interactive chat that can be activated on their smartphone, will be able to receive clues scattered in various key areas of the city – often little known – and during the resolution of the puzzles, they will be able to relive firsthand events and historical facts that actually happened, immersing ourselves in the stories of the protagonists of the tour through real journeys through time. To date, Garipalli has created over 30 City Escapes in more than 20 Italian cities – developed independently or in synergy with local authorities and administrations – offering an educational and entertainment experience capable of satisfying both the “smart tourist”, in seeks innovative solutions to get to know the city, as well as the “domestic tourist” looking for experiences to share and stimuli for free time. Furthermore, with its activity Garipalli has managed to bring over 60,000 young people closer to the beauty of its territory, supporting more than 60 local activities, initiating collaborations and partnerships with Municipalities, Associations, Bodies and Companies throughout Italy.