The program dedicated to the growth of Intesa Sanpaolo startups is coming in collaboration with the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. It is about “Up2Stars”, where the aim is to identify and encourage the acceleration of companies that invest more in sustainability, digitization and innovation. The banking institute led by Carlo Messina also announced the increase of the budget to 1,2 billion euros in support available to small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector.
In detail, the Up2Stars program provides for the launch of 4 consecutive selection calls, on a bimonthly basis - February, April, June and September - intended for self-nominations of startups active in the sectors identified as strategic: Digital and Industry 4.0; Bioeconomy with focus on Agri Tech and Food Tech; Medtech and Healthcare; aerospace. For each call, a maximum of 10 startups will be selected, for a total of 40 that will access the 2022 program.
The first call is dedicated to the selection of startups active in the Digital sector and Industry 4.0 specialized in:
- Anaytics and AI: solutions for the valorisation of big and open data, enhanced forecasting, nowcasting, decision support system, deep learning, hyper automation;
- Man-machine interaction: development technologies, digital interfaces, wearable smart equipment, Augmented Reality software (remote assistance, pick & place, complex assembly);
- Digital manufacturing: advanced and additive Manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, 5th generation mobile network, IoT sensors and infrastructure, machine-to-machine interaction, computer vision, digital Twin technologies (prototyping, maintenance), technologies for energy storage and consumption optimization;
- Cybersecurity: cyber assessment and simulation, cryptography info protection, passwordless, Operational Technology (OT) security, zero trust security, Software-Defined Security (SDS).
Self-nominations will be evaluated on the basis of five points: Team (complementary skills, commitment and own resources, ability to involve suitable advisors); Market opportunity (target market size and growth forecast, go-to-market, competitive landscape); Product (need to be met, design and innovation, competitive advantages, stage of development); Defensibility (entry barriers such as intellectual property, if applicable, otherwise time-to-market and traction or otherwise); Economic Plan (five-year plan with solid assumptions, use of raised funds, ROI strategy).
At the end of each acceleration path, every two months, a Demo Day is scheduled to present the accelerated startups to an audience of investors and businesses. Up2Stars will conclude the cycle with a final celebration event for the 40 startups selected and accompanied on a growth path that will allow them to meet coaches, mentors and investors, create networking and encourage meetings with mature companies.
The Gellify accelerator and Up2Stars partners
As regards the path of each startup selected by Up2Stars, it will be provided by the acceleration partner Gellify and includes a personalized content plan and the mentorship of industry experts.
The partners Microsoft Italia, Cisco and Opening Future – an initiative aimed at supporting and growing digital in Italy in partnership with Google Cloud and Noovle, Tim's cloud company – will provide startups with services and tools useful for acceleration (e.g. cloud , sw licenses, tech training, indexing services). While ELITE - Euronext Group - will offer the opportunity to participate in the exclusive Lounge in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo at the headquarters of Borsa Italiana, to accompany startups in training courses, dimensional growth and opening up to the capital market and, with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center , will provide training support and the organization of meetings with the active participation of the startups in the events and in the support and development process.
Intesa Sanpaolo's new measures to support Tourism
The banking institute announces a new intervention in favor of hospitality businesses through specific financial solutions: transfer of the tax credit, short and medium-long term loans. The priority interventions that will give the possibility to access the allocated resources include the increase in the energy efficiency of the structures, the anti-seismic requalification, the extraordinary maintenance and the digitization of the same.
In detail, the Group's offer, which will allow companies to take advantage of state benefits as soon as the implementing regulations are available, provides for:
• Transfer of the tax credit: it will allow those who have accrued the tax credit to transfer it to the bank, obtaining the payment of the consideration, without having to wait for the recovery times envisaged by the law;
• Short-term financing: for advance grants disbursed at the end of the work;
• Medium-long term financing: with disbursement at the progress of the works and pre-amortization with the possibility of repaying part of the principal amount through state incentives (and repayment in installments of the remaining amount through the company's operating cash flows).
The agreement signed with the trade associations Confindustria Alberghi, Federalberghi and Federterme fits into this framework in order to contribute to the acceleration of investments in the sector. The following financing solutions are included in the measures intended for members:
- Loan suites, loan designed for tourism businesses that intend to improve their positioning in terms of quality of their accommodation through a mechanism of economic incentives thanks to the reduction of the rate following the sharing of improvement objectives;
- S-Loan Tourism, the financing for sustainability which aims to encourage investments for the energy requalification of hotel structures, with particular attention to the environmental impact of the interventions. Also in this case there is a mechanism of rewards in terms of reduction of the rate applied and the possibility of combining the Sace Green guarantee at 80%, which allows the duration of the loan to be extended up to 20 years, including 3 years of pre-amortisation.
The new support measures for start-ups and businesses in the tourism sector contribute to implementing one of the pillars of "Engine Italy”, Intesa Sanpaolo's strategic program to support SMEs with new credit and liquidity for investments.
