Sebastiano Toffaletti
Sebastiano Toffaletti is Secretary General and co-founder of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, Europe’s largest network of ICT SMEs. Since 2008, he has represented over 45,000 innovative companies in EU digital policy discussions, bringing together expertise in management, economics, and industrial engineering with a strong vision for Europe’s technological future.
Over the years, Sebastiano has become a leading advocate for SMEs in areas such as digital transformation, intellectual property rights, cloud computing, open standards, cybersecurity, sustainability, and digital skills. He has served in multiple European working groups and advisory boards, including the EU Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation, the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), where he contributes to setting global benchmarks for digital policy and technological adoption.
As Secretary General, he has led initiatives that strengthen SME competitiveness, foster innovation ecosystems, and build bridges between policymakers, industry leaders, and research institutions. His leadership has helped create opportunities for thousands of digital SMEs to access European funding programs, participate in cross-border collaborations, and scale their businesses internationally.
Sebastiano Toffaletti’s mission is to ensure that Europe’s digital economy remains open, fair, and inclusive. By empowering SMEs—the backbone of Europe’s economy—he drives a vision where smaller companies play a central role in shaping Europe’s digital sovereignty, fostering innovation, and delivering sustainable growth across all regions.
European DIGITAL SME Alliance is a European organization representing digital small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting their role in Europe's digital economy. Its activity focuses on policy advocacy, innovation, digital skills, standards, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, technology adoption and the competitiveness of European digital companies. The alliance is relevant for FACTORY 4.0 because SMEs are essential to industrial modernization, both as technology providers and as adopters of digital tools. Many manufacturing ecosystems depend on smaller companies that deliver software, integration, cybersecurity, automation services and specialized innovation. European DIGITAL SME Alliance connects these companies with European policy debates and international cooperation opportunities. At the conference, its profile helps bring the European perspective on digital sovereignty, SME competitiveness, skills and the role of smaller technology businesses in building resilient, innovative and future-ready industrial value chains.
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