(Alliance News) - A new ELITE Intesa Sanpaolo Lounge kicks off, welcoming 25 new Italian startups with high innovation content into the financial acceleration path. The initiative is part of the broader partnership between Italy's leading banking group and ELITE, Euronext's ecosystem that helps small and medium-sized companies grow and access private and public capital markets.

In addition to the more than 300 companies included in the Intesa Sanpaolo and ELITE Lounge over a five-year period, startups have also been added since 2020, "in a sign of attention to emerging companies that are carriers of innovation and technology in the Italian productive sphere," the bank's note reads.

More than 100 new young companies have so far seized the opportunity to join the broader growth ecosystem and benefit from the advice and support of partners of excellence, along with the possibility of access to a network of professionals and institutional investors to facilitate their access to the capital market.

The 25 new protagonists of the ELITE Lounge 2024 come from all over Italy and belong to different strategic industrial sectors for the development of the country's economy: Green Tech, Water Tech, Renewable Energy, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Infrastructure and Mobility. Many of them were selected through the "Up2Stars" program, conceived by Intesa Sanpaolo in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and dedicated to the development and acceleration of the best innovative startups.

Also important are the collaborations activated by Intesa Sanpaolo with the four National Research Centers of which the group is a founding partner as well as with the nine European innovation hubs - EDIH.

Innovation and sustainability will be the drivers of the Lounge's training program, which includes four cross-cutting in-depth modules dedicated to good governance, corporate culture, financial resource raising, strategic innovation and internationalization. Areas, these, also in line with the focus areas of "Your Future is Our Business," Intesa Sanpaolo's new program dedicated to the competitive and sustainable development of businesses that makes EUR120 billion available for investments in transformation and renewal processes related to the energy and digital transition.

Anna Roscio, Executive Director Sales & Marketing Enterprises Intesa Sanpaolo, said, "We have always believed in the strategic value of startups to accelerate the technological, digital and sustainable transition of our companies and the country. This Lounge is a unique tool to support them and expand their opportunities for growth and impact on the production system, in synergy with our financial enhancement and acceleration programs, as well as the availability of financial instruments such as the Convertible enterprise loan."

Marta Testi, managing director of Euronext Group's ELITE, added, "The virtuous circle between innovation and business is at the heart of our commitment to supporting the growth and competitiveness of Italian companies. We are happy to announce today the second group of companies in the 2024 Lounge with Intesa Sanpaolo. With this group we surpass 100 startups selected from all over Italy in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo."

"The common goal is to support their growth through the understanding of finance tools, the acquisition of strategic and operational skills and the opportunity to measure themselves against the market. We hope they can structure themselves managerially and dimensionally in the coming years, taking the best from our European entrepreneurial ecosystem and bringing insights and innovations to the more than 1,500 ELITE companies that certainly represent an aspirational model for them."

Intesa Sanpaolo's stock is down 0.2 percent at EUR3.52 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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