They are 60 business realities, between 38 SMEs and 22 startups, entered in 2025 in the Intesa Sanpaolo Elite Lounge, the initiative implemented for the eighth consecutive year by Intesa Sanpaolo in collaboration with Elite, the Euronext Group ecosystem dedicated to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and their access to public and private capital markets.
All the selected companies are customers of the Territorial Bank Division They participate in an advanced training, mentorship, and extraordinary finance program, with modules on strategy, innovation, and structured finance, discussions with experts, and access to a qualified network of investors and industrial partners, confirming the bank's role as a bridge between the production system and market finance.
Foreign companies debut and startups enter their fifth year
The 2025 edition also marks a novelty on a geographical level: first participate foreign companies from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Intesa Sanpaolo clients, thanks to the collaboration with the International Banks Division. The focus on innovation is also consolidated: 2025 marks the fifth year of structured support for startups, strengthened by programs such as Up2Stars and from matching initiatives with investors and industrial partners also at an international level, such as the recent missions in the United States and in Silicon Valley.
Elite Lounge numbers since 2018
From the 2018, the partnerships between Intesa Sanpaolo and Elite has given birth to 25 classes of the Lounge, involving over 500 companies with more than 34 billion euros in turnover and 99 employees. Since 2020, for SME clients of the Banca dei Territori Division, led by Stephen Barrese, with a turnover of up to 350 million euros, has completed structured finance transactions worth over 10 billion euros, of which over 2 billion in the first nine months of 2025. In recent years, more than 35 M&A and IPO transactions have also been concluded, thanks in part to the process developed in collaboration with Elite.
Elite data confirm the positive impact of the initiative: companies adhering to the Lounge record a average annual revenue growth of 11% over three years e an 8% increase in employment, highlighting a concrete multiplier effect on the productive fabric.
Sectors and geographical distribution
The companies that have entered Elite thanks to Intesa Sanpaolo belong to 40% to the industrial sector, 22% to consumer goods, 19% to technology and 6% to healthcare and consumer services respectively. From a geographical point of view, a balanced presence emerges between Northern Italy – with Lombardy (26%), Veneto (13%) and Piedmont (10%) – and Center-Sud, which represents 21% of the companies, in addition to foreign companies from Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Comments
Anna Roscio, Executive Director of Sales & Marketing for Enterprises at Intesa Sanpaolo, emphasizes: "The new edition of Elite Lounge confirms the value of an initiative that, since 2018, has already involved over 500 companies. This year, we've introduced 60 new businesses to the program, including SMEs and startups, which demonstrate the vitality of our country's productive fabric. We intend to continue our successful collaboration with Euronext's Elite, which is part of our Group's broader strategy to support the growth of Italy's SMEs, also thanks to our new advisory model dedicated to extraordinary finance tools for SMEs."
For Martha Texts, CEO of Elite – Euronext Group: “Our commitment is to support the growth of the Italian and European entrepreneurial community. Through our strategic partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo, we share the goal of offering small and medium-sized businesses and startups privileged access to expertise, advanced financial tools, and strategic networks, fostering innovation, internationalization, and competitiveness in global markets. Together, we help generate tangible value for the productive system: the companies that have joined this ecosystem thanks to Intesa Sanpaolo have seen an average annual growth in revenue of 11% and employment of 8%. Our goal is to continue offering entrepreneurs and businesses the opportunity to access capital, accelerating the competitiveness and economic development of their regions.”
