Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo support SME innovation

• SMEs and start-ups will benefit from economic, technological and financial support for the growth and development of innovative energy projects

Turin, May 31st, 2017 – Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo have signed a partnership agreement to support innovation in the energy sector as well as promote the development of Circular Economy and Open Innovation. The agreement signed by Ernesto Ciorra, head of Enel's Innovation and Sustainability division, Carlo Tamburi, Enel’s head of Country Italy and Maurizio Montagnese, Chief Innovation Officer of Intesa Sanpaolo, brings the two companies together to support the development of an innovation ecosystem at the national and international level, promoting the development of sector projects.

In particular, the SMEs and start-ups that collaborate with Enel on innovation projects, in addition to receiving technical and financial support from the Enel Group, will also benefit from financial support from the network of innovation specialists that Intesa Sanpaolo has created in recent years.
Additionally, companies will be able to join the Tech Marketplace platform created by the bank to foster new business opportunities and access the network of international hubs for match-making events, investor days, workshops and joint training sessions.

The partnership will generate reciprocal benefits: for Enel it represents an instrument for completing the range of support services it provides companies that cooperate with it on innovation projects, while for Intesa Sanpaolo it represents a new way of supporting innovation in industries, leveraging the skills of its best customers to assess the merit of projects, which will be replicated in other industrial sectors in the future. Finally, the two companies will promote the joint implementation of initiatives in the Circular Economy field, collaborating, for example, on the Futur-e project, which is intended to give a new purpose to 23 Enel power plants that are no longer operational.
Within the Circular Economy field, Intesa Sanpaolo is already a Global Financial Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, one of the major international players dedicated to spreading the circular economy model, while Enel was included by the World Economic Forum among the world’s six most active multinational corporations in this field.

“This partnership shows that for companies such as Enel and Intesa Sanpaolo innovation is at the centre of their development and growth strategy in  global markets”, commented Intesa Sanpaolo's Chief Innovation Officer, Maurizio Montagnese. “The synergies with Enel, from support for the start-up and innovative SMEs ecosystem to our common interest in the Circular Economy,  represent the environment for continuing to make innovation a distinctive value for the two Groups and their customers .”

“Enel is an energy multinational whose head and heart lie in Italy, which is home to many innovative SMEs created thanks to the passion and tenacity of brilliant entrepreneurs”, said Ernesto Ciorra, head of Enel’s Innovation and Sustainability division. “In addition to the support of large groups like Enel for the development of their products, these companies also need partners to help them finance their projects. I refer to companies like Intesa Sanpaolo, who do not limit their vision to valuing collateral for loans, but also consider the growth prospects of companies and help them raise equity and debt capital. Our share goal is to help Italian SMEs become the new multinationals”.

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