The role of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center during Dubai Expo 2020

27 April 2022
Innovation Center, Business Development, Startup Development, Innovation, Finance

Three main events organized to promote the internationalization of Italian corporates

Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center promotes open innovation and the growth of the best startups by presiding over the fastest growing international ecosystems. Supporting the area by developing local entrepreneurship is one of the main pillars for our company. It is with this spirit that Innovation House @Dubai Expo 2020 was approached. The project included a series of side events co-organized by the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, PoliMI, the Lombardy Region and SVA Group in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center which held the role of Platinum Sponsor.

In the frame of Expo2020, Innovation House played the role of a platform for disseminating the culture of innovation and business origination for Italian and international companies interested in the UAE market.

The three meetings at the Innovation House

Thanks to the involvement of all the players, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, together with the Branches of Intesa Sanpaolo Dubai and Abu Dhabi, organized 3 main events:

From Sustainable to Impact Finance (December 8th 2021). Event that saw the participation of keynote speakers from the university, financial and institutional world operating on ESG issues. During the meeting, sustainable finance, impact finance and the Circular Economy were discussed with the aim of presenting the opportunities offered by the adoption of these principles and sharing success stories and best practices through direct testimonials to entrepreneurs, funds and institutions.

The Future of Agri & Food at Innovation House (February 22nd-23rd 2022). Match-making meeting held on the occasion of the Expo week dedicated to Food, Agriculture & Livelihoods to bring together the best Israeli technologies Agri & Food Tech with commercial operators from the UAE. The objective was to promote international relations between Italian companies and corporations with the Emirate and international world, offering training and information content and business meetings, in line with the positioning, internationalization and technological development objectives of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and the Group.

Investor Day at Innovation House (March 28th-29th 2022): Matching initiative focused on two of the strategic sectors of the Dubai ecosystem: Smart City and Media & Entertainment. Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center organized a B2B session that saw the startups of the RS Productions network of the IMMEDIATE Program as protagonists, together with a selection of companies from the Techstars network of the Turin Cities of the Future Program and Emirati corporates and investors. It was an opportunity for discussion to stimulate investments and experiments between technology companies and international counterparts operating in the ecosystem of the United Arab Emirates.

Strengthen the Group's positioning in the Middle East and North Africa

The collaboration with the Polytechnic Foundation of Milan, SVA Group and the IMI CIB Division of Intesa Sanpaolo has allowed Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center to discover and activate important relationships with the main players in the local innovative ecosystem.

Thanks to the three events it was possible to strengthen the international brand awareness of the DUBAI and ABU DHABI Branches of the IMI CIB Division, positioning the Group as a Financial Institution able to offer value-added services for the technological development and internationalization of its customers - also through Open Innovation activities.

Furthermore, with this initiative, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group confirmed its commitment during Expo2020, creating not only moments of institutional meeting, but also generating new business and commercial exchange opportunities for Corporate and Local Sovereign Funds.