Italian Lifestyle: six startups selected for the acceleration program

The project of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and CR Firenze Foundation with Nana Bianca and the Foundation for Research and Innovation offers new opportunities to companies in the made in Italy sectors such as tourism, fashion and food. The focus is on digital agriculture projects, influencer marketing with AI, technologies to save on last minute travel or to select the right restaurants.

Dynamic QR codes that project products into the metaverse. A platform that identifies restaurants based on food needs and creates a "Food Identity Card" for each customer. A digital agriculture app that optimizes agricultural production by reducing the use of chemicals thanks to drones, sensors, 3D models and algorithms. And again: a startup for influencer marketing (but without influencers), one for cybersecurity and a portal for booking last minute rooms.

The program is implemented by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and Fondazione CR Firenze in collaboration with Nana Bianca and the Foundation for Research and Innovation of the University of Florence, under the patronage of Confindustria Firenze. All will have 12 weeks and a grant of 20,000 euros to develop their proposal thanks to the dedicated support network managed by Nana Bianca. The partner companies in the Florentine area involved in the initiative - Ruffino, Gucci, San Pellegrino, Starhotels, Colorobbia, Alpitour, Cisco and Pitti Immagine - will make their managers available to seize the opportunities for joint services and new products.

Alessandro Balboni - Head of Innovation Business Development Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center: "The Intesa Sanpaolo Group believes that the construction of innovative ecosystems in the area is one of the most effective ways to develop new entrepreneurship of value and to strengthen innovative and sustainable of established companies. Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center has the task of supporting this process by facilitating the interaction between innovation supply and demand in a concrete and fruitful way. Italian Lifestyle is an important example of open innovation and contamination between startups and companies and we are counting on the virtuous path started last year to continue with renewed satisfaction, bringing further value to the Florentine area in extremely important sectors such as tourism, fashion and food&wine”.