PRESS RELEASE

 

INTESA SANPAOLO TAKES THE 12 MOST INNOVATIVE

ITALIAN START-UPS OF UP2STARS TO SILICON VALLEY

 

INTERNATIONAL DRIVE TO "MADE IN ITALY"

THANKS TO THE COLLABORATION WITH INNOVIT

 

 

·     In San Francisco, 12 start-ups have been selected as part of Up2Stars, the Intesa Sanpaolo programme that has already launched and accelerated 80 in two editions. Concrete support, resulting in a total economic value of €2.2 million

·     For the first time ever, an Italian bank in collaboration with INNOVIT offers start-ups an acceleration path and meeting with potential investors in the US

·     New synergies to develop the Italian economy abroad: the Group has already provided over €800 million for investments by start-ups and innovative SMEs

 

San Francisco (USA), 10 September 2024 - Intesa Sanpaolo is promoting an exclusive acceleration programme in Silicon Valley for 12 innovative Italian start-ups in collaboration with INNOVIT (Italian Innovation and Culture Hub) and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. A journey of mutual acquaintance and full of meetings with potential investors, which took place over the past few days in San Francisco, in the technological heart of California, to present the excellence of Italian innovation and offer selected start-ups an important internationalisation opportunity, in a complete immersion in the most dynamic and competitive entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world thanks to the support of Intesa Sanpaolo.

Keplera (Palermo), 2NDSpace (Faenza), Novac (Modena), PINPOINT (Bastiglia, Modena), Monitor The Planet (Faenza), Novalimb (Rome), Infinity ID (Brescia), bitCorp (Milan), CityZ (Caselle Torinese, Turin), Joule (Campodarsego, Padua), Oraigo (Padua), M2Test (Trieste): these are the 12 operators identified together with INNOVIT amongst the 80 that took part in the two editions of Up2Stars, Intesa Sanpaolo's programme dedicated to the optimisation of Italian start-ups operating in strategic sectors for the country's economy such as digital, bio-economy, health, water aerospace, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and mobility. They are 12 young companies that have distinguished themselves for the innovative potential of their projects and their adherence to the specific investment objectives of the Silicon Valley system, also included in the Elite-Group Euronext track, among the partners collaborating in the Up2Stars acceleration programme. This path is unique on the banking scene, thanks to the important collaborations that Intesa Sanpaolo, together with Innovation Center, has woven into the innovation ecosystem, accompanying start-ups in their industrial, financial and managerial growth and, today, also internationally.

During their stay in San Francisco, the 12 start-ups were able to participate in more than 20 training sessions with local universities, mentoring and networking activities with large American innovative companies, and had a “shark tank”, a guide of experts to present themselves to potential investors and possible strategic partners. A concrete commitment by Intesa Sanpaolo in terms of training, visibility and promotion for start-ups that translates into a total economic value of €2.2 million: €25,000 for each start-up accelerated by Up2Stars, rising to €45,000 for the 12 companies that participated in the mission to San Francisco.

The mission, led by the head of Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca dei Territori Division Stefano Barrese - accompanied by Anna Roscio, executive director of Sales & Marketing Imprese Intesa Sanpaolo, and with Nicola Baiocchi di Silvestri, country manager USA & Americas Intesa Sanpaolo - is being carried out with the support of the Italian Innovation Centre, directed by Alberto Acito and set up at INNOVIT, the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub promoted by the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Italian Consulate General in San Francisco. ITA (Italian Trade Agency) and IIC (Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco) are also essential components of INNOVIT. This is the first ever collaboration set up between an Italian banking group and the INNOVIT Innovation Centre - managed since October 2022 by the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation together with Entopan Innovation, the Harmonic Innovation Group's incubator and accelerator - whose aim is to stimulate entrepreneurial ideas by catalysing innovative cross-border projects and acting as an accelerator of their international development thanks to a stable presence in Silicon Valley and the USA.

Intesa Sanpaolo's initiative with INNOVIT represents a further step in the commitment of Italy's leading banking group to support the ecosystem of innovation and business competitiveness on the international stage. The Intesa Sanpaolo Group has long been committed to this business segment with dedicated programmes and services, accompanying start-ups on growth and investment paths.  For more than a decade, in fact, the bank has devoted a great deal of attention to Italian start-ups, with a market share of almost 32% and financing in excess of €800 million.

Intesa Sanpaolo is also an active partner in the development and renewal of technology transfer models to companies in the region, being a founding partner of four National Research Centres in Milan, Bologna, Naples and Padua - which are part of the NRRP. Thanks to its presence in 37 countries, the synergies between the Group's Divisions, the expertise of its specialist desks and the collaboration with prestigious partners, Intesa Sanpaolo is expanding its support for the internationalisation processes of Italian companies either directly or through interaction with strategic players such as INNOVIT, promoting the success of companies and start-ups - with a clear return in value for the Italian economic system.

"We identified Silicon Valley as a unique environment for Italian start-ups to compare and develop, with mutual benefits in knowledge transfer and expansion into new markets. Thanks to our collaboration with INNOVIT, we have strengthened these 12 start-ups with the tools they need to establish themselves on an international scale, thus creating new chains of innovation to the benefit of our country's economy”, comments Stefano Barrese, Head of Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca dei Territori Division. "We are a bank deeply rooted in the Italian territory from which these excellencies come, but thanks to our international dimension and a network of strategic partners we can promote their growth abroad and, vice versa, attract new investments to Italy”.

According to the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco, Sergio Strozzi, "Intesa Sanpaolo's mission to San Francisco, led by Stefano Barrese and featuring an ad-hoc programme of Up2Stars start-ups at INNOVIT, fits perfectly with the strategy of the Embassy of Italy in Washington and the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco to strengthen relations between Italian innovation and Silicon Valley and spread a more modern and real image of our country's talents on the West Coast. For the Consulate General and INNOVIT, this means not only promoting the many technologically advanced companies in our country, but also assisting and promoting the large Italian and European companies, such as Intesa Sanpaolo, that support our innovative ecosystems on a daily basis. The increasingly frequent presence of Intesa Sanpaolo's top management in San Francisco is an important sign of this new era of relations between Italy and Silicon Valley, concretely opened with the creation, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation together with ICE, of the Italian Hub of Innovation and Culture - INNOVIT".

Alberto Acito, Director of the INNOVIT Innovation Centre: "We are excited to partner up with Intesa Sanpaolo to offer selected start-ups the opportunity to engage with the world's most advanced entrepreneurial ecosystem. INNOVIT was created with the aim of catalysing innovative projects and facilitating the international growth of Italian companies, creating a two-way flow of ideas and expertise that enriches the Italian economy. The programme developed for Up2Stars is a significant step in this direction”.

 

 

Press information

 

Intesa Sanpaolo

Banca dei Territori Media and Local Media

Media and Associations Relations

stampa@intesasanpaolo.com

Intesa Sanpaolo, with over €422 billion in loans and €1,350 billion in customer financial assets at the end of June 2024, is the largest banking group in Italy with a significant international presence. It is a European leader in wealth management, with a strong focus on digital and fintech. In the ESG area, €115 billion of Impact disbursements are planned for the community and green transition by 2025. The programme for the benefit and support of people in need is €1.5 billion (2023-2027). The Bank's museum network, the Gallerie d'Italia, is an exhibition venue for the Bank's own artistic heritage and cultural projects of recognised value.

News: group.intesasanpaolo.com/it/newsroom - X: @intesasanpaolo - LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/intesa-sanpaolo

INNOVIT is the hub promoted by the Directorate General for the Country System of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Consulate General in San Francisco. Implementing body of the project, through its offices in New York and Los Angeles, is ITA (Italian Trade Agency). In addition to the Innovation Centre, INNOVIT includes the Desks of ICE (agency for the promotion abroad and internationalisation of Italian companies) and the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco. INNOVIT's goal is to create partnerships between the American and Italian economic and cultural ecosystems and to guarantee the Italian community a lasting presence in Silicon Valley also thanks to the IIC (Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco). INNOVIT is a strategic initiative of the Italian government to promote the country system's innovation in the United States. The activities of the Italian Innovation Centre were entrusted in October 2022 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Ice to the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation, think and do tank for innovation and local development, and to Entopan Innovation, incubator and accelerator of Harmonic Innovation Group. https://innovitsf.com/

 

The 12 start-ups of the Intesa Sanpaolo and INNOVIT mission to San Francisco:

 

 

2NDSpace	Aerospace	It aims to provide operational life extensions for satellites in orbit, with a view to the sustainability of the space environment. The service is configured through a service satellite that can perform maintenance by upgrading or replacing certain subsystems on board the satellite in orbit, restoring it and thus extending its operational life. www.2ndspace.eu/	Faenza (RA)
bitCorp	Digital/Industry 4.0	The start-up proposes cyber intelligence and cyber security services, based on advanced proprietary technologies, including a modular cybersecurity platform consisting of: IDS-IPS system enriched by Artificial Intelligence models, centralised endpoint protection (HIDS) multi-platform, and data integration with SIEM systems. Since 2018, it has supported state institutions in high-tech activities. www.bitcorp.it	Milan
INFINITY ID	Digital/Industry 4.0	It realises all-inclusive systems with RFID technology that can be customised according to specific needs. The suite of ready-to-use apps enables visibility throughout the supply chain and cost reduction in the manufacturing, logistics and retail sectors, thanks to the application of state-of-the-art RFID technologies and deep expertise in complex environments. The digital solution leverages agile, automatic and fast identification of components and products, simplifying inventory, shipping and production processes. www.infinity-id.com	Brescia
Novac	Renewable energy and energy efficiency	Energy storage start-up developing modelling supercaps to increase the power of electric vehicles and satellites, with a low design cost for customers. www.novacsupercap.com	Modena
PINPOINT	Renewable energy and energy efficiency	A startup with proprietary AI that generates digital mathematical models of machines. It measures absorption to identify the optimal operating point, aligning the plant’s needs with the machine's performance. It addresses two industrial challenges: reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions. It modulates the workload in real time on existing pumps, using real data. This technology can reduce energy consumption by up to 60%, delivering visible results within minutes of activation.  www.pinpointweb.it	Bastille (MO)
Joule	AI for business transformation	Innovative HRTech start-up created and patented AI-based software that extrapolates the character and job aptitudes of candidates from a 40-second video presentation, thus connecting them with consistent job offers and enabling the company to obtain a pre-selection by shortening the recruiter's workload by 3 weeks. www.joule.video	Campodarsego (PD)
Keplera	AI for business transformation	Legal-tech start-up supporting law firms and SMEs in the digital transition of processes. It has created a software that, thanks to AI, reduces the time taken to create contracts and legal documents by reducing risks and errors and cutting processing time by up to 90% by ensuring that the entire work-flow is managed within a single, efficient and secure tool. www.lexhero.com	Palermo
CityZ	IoT, infrastructure and mobility	It deals with smart parking solutions. The company uses adhesive sensors and IoT technology to offer a complete system to monitor and manage parking spaces in real time with the aim of making cities smarter and more sustainable, reducing traffic congestion and improving the parking experience for all. www.cityz.it	Caselle Torinese (TO)
Monitor the Planet	IoT, infrastructure and mobility	The company has developed a self-driving robot that collects substantial data that can be used to formulate new scenarios for creating safe and productive ecosystems. www.monitortheplanet.com	Faenza (RA)
Oraigo	IoT, infrastructure and mobility	It is a neurotech start-up that combines brainwaves and A.I. to combat sleepy driving, increase safety and productivity of transport fleets and intervene with alerts in dangerous situations, thus reducing accidents, lowering insurance costs, improving productivity and increasing driver retention. www.oraigo.com	Padua
Novalimb	Medtech/Healthcare	Innovative start-up operating in the non-invasive orthopaedic industry. The company applies Internet of Things and AI technologies to the development of a prosthesis reservoir that can dynamically adapt to changes in the volume of a patient's residual limb in order to reduce, if not eliminate altogether, the pain traditionally associated with wearing a prosthesis. www.lazioinnova.it/community/azienda/novalimb/	Rome
M2TEST	Medtech/Healthcare	Innovative start-up working as an SAAS through the provision of a 'Bone Elastic Structure Test', a new medical examination designed to assess the quality of the internal structure of bone useful in the diagnosis, monitoring and prevention of fragility fractures. www.bestest.it	Trieste