UniCredit, in collaboration with the law firm Orrick, matches the best Italian scale-ups with a selected audience of innovation "champions" and international investors
If new technologies have supported companies' production processes (smartworking) and families' purchasing processes (e-commerce) in the current complicated scenario, it is also thanks to the work and results achieved by startups and scale-ups, who are amongst the drivers of the innovation ecosystem.
A relevance and resilience clearly shown even in these complicated months by the world of Italian startups: in the first half of 2020 investments in Italian startups reached 260 million euros (source: StartUpItalia).
Today UniCredit, in collaboration with the law firm Orrick, organises the "Italy Tech Day - Disruptive Lifestyle", an initiative to present and discuss in front of an audience of international investors that brings together some of Italy's leading Lifestyle scale-ups, companies that have already made their first dimension leap and that have a structured business with a growth potential for future development.
Looking at the initiative in more detail, 6 companies will present themselves, after having been selected within the Founders' Club, the project, deriving from the experience of UniCredit Start Lab (the business platform that has led to the analysis of more than 5,300 innovative start-ups from 2014 to date and the selection of 350 projects that have been supported in their growth paths), brings together 60 scale-ups operating in the Life Science, Clean Tech, Innovative Made in Italy and Digital sectors that have recorded excellent performance in terms of revenues, attractiveness of capital and international growth routes.
Below are the 6 scale-ups participating in the event whose founders have been interviewed by internationally acknowledged "opinion leaders and investors" in the world of innovation such as Simon Beckerman, Frederic Court, Riccardo Pozzoli, Ash Puri, Reshma Sohoni and Jeremy Uzan:
BOOM: a collaborative platform that connects photographic image professionals with their clients. BOOM Imagestudio is a "marketplace" of on-demand photographic services operating on an international scale and a meeting place for a generation of creatives and authors looking for inspiration, learning, comparison and work.
BUDDYFIT: the first digital gym in Italy, Buddyfit is the new application available for Android and Ios created to allow people to train anywhere with the support of a personal trainer, through personalised or live workouts.
EVERLI: first company to have applied an innovative model that allows customers to choose the supermarket they trusts, order shopping online and rely on a personal shopper who will deliver it to the desired address within one hour or within the requested time slot. Everli offers the widest range of products on the Italian online market, with more than 65,000 references and on average hundreds of deals available on the platform, thanks to the important partnerships with the main Italian large-scale retailers.
FREEDA: a group that includes Freeda - a media brand for young women present in Italy, Spain and the UK with over 7 million followers on the most important social networks - Superfluid - a personal care brand of products active across Europe - and Goovi - which creates natural products for women.
SHOPFULLY: leading the Drive-to-Store by developing solutions that connect consumers with physical retailers through digital technologies and strategies. With an international DNA, ShopFully partners with more than 700 retailers and brands globally.
VELASCA: global brand of high-quality shoes and accessories, entirely Made in Italy, with a Direct to Consumer sales model. Born as a digital brand, thanks to a proprietary e-commerce platform, in recent years it has also developed a network of over 10 shops in Italy and Globally.
The Scale-ups' presentation was preceded by a round table entitled 'Europa Tech: a mosaic in evolution for opportunities and investments' attended by Gilad Engel (Partner of Target Global), Stefania Godoli (Joint Venture Manager CIB-CCB Italy of UniCredit), Luca Colciago (General Partner Kreos Capital) and Vanessa Pinter (Digital+).
Olivier Khayat, Co-CEO Commercial Banking Western Europe at UniCredit, says: "Today investing in innovation is more than an option: it is a clear priority. The moment we are living is complex and the recovery of the entire system is totally linked to the ability of innovating business models to quickly adapt and respond to the current unpredicted global changes, combining the new opportunities unlocked by the digitalization with the historical strengths of Made in Italy. This is vital to meet the evolving needs of customers and stay ahead of the evolving competitive landscape. UniCredit counts on its strong expertise and its consolidated network with corporates, institutions and investors to be a strategic partner, offering the best solutions to support the growth of both mature and new businesses."
Attilio Mazzilli, Head of Orrick's Italian Tech Group, says: "For some years now we have been observing a positive trend that sees Italian startups make their way internationally and deservedly earn the consideration of international investors, who recognize and promote their expertise and development, also through important funding. Together with UniCredit we have created an event that this year focuses on the Lifestyle segment, in which Italy excels and where Italian founders have identified the perfect synergy with the digital world. The Tech Day is one of the many initiatives that Orrick is promoting, with the aim of fostering the tech ecosystem of the country, creating opportunities for mentoring and matchmaking among the key players in the market".
Milan
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