Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center promotes innovation at Smau London
After Paris, the international Roadshow of Smau, a well-structured reference platform in Italy for matching innovation supply and demand - continued in London.
The fourth edition of the London stage – designed to create a bridge between the Italian innovative ecosystem, the Londoner HUB and the UK market – opened on Tuesday 2 May with the inaugural reception at the Italian Embassy in London, which was attended by about 200 guests including Corporates, startups, enablers and accelerators, investors, media and institutional representatives of both countries.
Luigi Napolano- General Manager London Branch of Intesa Sanpaolo - attended the event representing the Divisione IMI Corporate & Investment Banking of the Group and the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, main partner of Smau.
After underlining the central role of London (even after Brexit) in the world of business and innovation, listing some of the factors that make the UK ecosystem one of the most innovative and attractive on a global level, Napolano underlined the Group's role as "ecosystem aggregator: a Financial Institution capable of supporting business growth and collaboration between local stakeholders, through high value-added services that promote Open Innovation, internationalization and the transition towards the Circular Economy"
The London edition continued on Wednesday 6 May at the Old Truman Brewery with the "Smau - Italy RestartsUp" event, allowing the 46 startups protagonists of the stage to present their solutions to London investors and entrepreneurs with pitches and matching opportunities.
Two startups of the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center network attended the event:
- Cshark, active in the ICT and Aerospace sectors which has developed and patented at European level a metalanguage for AI and a satellite, already tested and put into orbit with SpaceX
- Latitudo 40, which has created a platform for transforming satellite images into strategic geospatial information to support investment decisions and sustainable and resilient management.
Both startups participated in the Up2Stars 2022 Aerospace qualifying among the top 10. Latitudo 40 - supported by the Business Development - was protagonist of Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator 2021 also winning the third prize in the first edition of In Action ESG Climate,
promoted by the Group's Insurance Division in collaboration with the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center.
Furthermore, important representatives of the Italian and British innovative ecosystem spoke in various thematic panels focused on Food & Retail, Smart Manufacturing, Energy & Environment, Smart Mobility and eHealth.
In particular, Intesa Sanpaolo took part as a speaker in the panel "Energy transformation and new opportunities for Smart Communities": Michel Bongiorno, Director and Global Relationship Manager Energy&Infrastructure of Intesa Sanpaolo - presented the main technological trends of the sector, emphasizing how the collaboration with The Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center generates new investment opportunities for the Group's Financial Institutions and Corporate Clients. Bongiorno then mentioned Open Innovation tools such as the Innovation Breakfast, a “format” that provides for the organization of personalized matching sessions between ISP Group Customers (Corporate, Investment Funds, Private Equity, etc.) and the technological realities of the portfolio of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center.
Equally important is the testimony of the Equitix Infrastructure Fund - one of the best known in the UK and part of the Tetragon Group, with HQ in London, represented within the panel by Fabio d'Alonzo - Managing Director for Equitix investments in Europe. Dr. D'Alonzo, invited to the panel by the Intesa Sanpaolo London Branch, illustrated the main technological investment strategies of the UK Asset Management Company, underlining the important business opportunities that can arise from the management of UK Government funds, from collaboration with Financial Institutions such as Intesa Sanpaolo and investment opportunities in exponential technologies in the Energy & Infrastructure sector.
Smau London 2023 closed on Thursday 4 May with a tour of London's innovation "centres", aimed at stimulating the creation of new partnerships with the Italian ecosystem.
