GREEN LIGHT TO”MAGIC WAND”, THE ACCELERATION PROGRAM FOR FINTECH AND INSURTECH STARTUPS, LAUNCHED BY DIGITAL MAGICS IN COLLABORATION WITH KEY MARKET LEADERS
BNL BNP Paribas Group, Credito Valtellinese, Ersel Investments, Innovation Centre of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, Innogest, Poste Italiane, SellaLab, SisalPay, Reale Mutua di Assicurazioni and UBI Banca are the ten partners of the Acceleration Program dedicated to innovation in the fields of finance and insurance, which also aims to represent the Italian centre of excellence in the sector
Among the more than 50 ideas submitted to http://magicwand.digitalmagics.com, the best projects have been selected, which win an initial grant of 5,000 EUR, and gain access to the 6 months long acceleration program, to be held at the Milan premises of the incubator Digital Magics
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Milan, January 15th, 2018 – A social insurance via a community of dedicated users, a system for the creation and storage of invoices and sales documents; an automatic insurance platform that collects and analyzes data, a robo advisor on investments in the alternative finance.
These are a few examples of the innovative business models, on which the projects of the startups selected for “Magic Wand†are focused. Magic Wand is the acceleration program launched by Digital Magics, the most important incubator of startups “Made in Italyâ€, now active throughout Italy. These projects have been presented today at the Fintech District in Milan, the space inaugurated a few months ago, known as the access point to the Italian fintech ecosystem.
“Magic Wand” will offer to the Startups – carefully chosen by a Jury comprised of Digital Magics and the program partners BNL BNP Paribas Group, Credito Valtellinese, Ersel Investments, Innovation Center of Intesa Sanpaolo, Innogest, Poste Italiane, SellaLab, SisalPay, Società Reale Mutua di Assicurazioni and UBI Banca – an initial grant of 5,000 EUR , along with a highly structured mentorship course for the duration of 6 months, plus additional grants for those startups that will demonstrate the best performances as concerns growth objectives set.
The purpose of “Magic Wand” program is to support and accelerate the growth of Italian Startups, by providing financial support, advisorship, experience sharing and business development support at an international level, thanks to the creation of an Italian centre of excellence to innovate the finance and insurance sector, based on an alliance of systems established with the most relevant operators in the market.
The first 8 “Magic Wand” Startups, which have been selected and have formalized or are formalizing the agreement with Digital Magics are: #InvestFT, Axieme, Cloudesire, Coverholder, DIAMAN Tech, Duedot (Quokky), EasyTax Assistant and Moneymour. In the next few days the last two will join and complete the team.
The details of the innovative business models presented by the finalists are available online at www.digitalmagics.com.
PHASES OF “MAGIC WAND” ACCELERATION PROGRAM
The acceleration program will propose to the selected Startups a strong agenda, rich in content and development opportunities, thanks to the 10 market leader partners, who will also make their skills and experience available to the reference mentors,tutors experts in the sector involved in the project, and to the team of Digital Magics, which will be focused on helping growth and improvement of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), with a perspective of very fast scalability and primary positioning on the market.
Many training sessions, courses, workshops and master classes are planned; they will be carried out by the founders of successful Startups and the top managers of large companies, experts in finance, marketing, legislation, “growth hackingâ€, as well as creatives and developers of platforms and digital interfaces.
In March, namely at the end of the second month of the acceleration program, there will be a second selection, which will allow the 6 Startups, which have shown potential to grow according to the established objectives, to continue and complete the acceleration process. The selected startups will receive a second grant of 15.000 EUR, they will participate in the final stage of “Magic Wand” Investor Day – the exclusive event that gathers the most important Italian and international investors – and will have the opportunity to join the Digital Magics team.
Finally, there are further major opportunities offered by Neva Finventures (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Innogest and SellaVentures (Banca Sella Group), which have decided to reserve themselves the possibility to finance the six “Magic Wand” finalist Startups, that at the end of the program will have reached the objectives and the KPIs set.
Furthermore, the Innovation Centre of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group will offer access to the 6 finalists to its Fintech competence centre, as well as the opportunity to participate in international scale up platforms and partnerships with the most important research centres in the world, as well as proof of concept on the identified products or services.
SellaLab will provide participants with the access to the platform “Platfr.io APIâ€, the offer at special conditions of the package of services and products dedicated to the startups “Up2Startâ€, as well as the e-commerce platform “Gestpayâ€, besides the the possibility to assess potential industrial partnerships with the banking group itself.
This press release is online in the section Investors/Press Releases at www.digitalmagics.com.
Digital Magics, listed on AIM Italia (symbol: DM), is a business incubator of digital projects that provides consulting services and acceleration services to startups and enterprises, to facilitate the development of new technological businesses. Thanks to the partnership with Talent Garden and Tamburi Investment Partners, Digital Magics has created the most important national platform for innovation for DIGITAL MADE IN ITALY, by providing support to innovative startups to create successful projects, from conception to IPO, while offering services for the digital transformation and “Open Innovation†to excellent enterprises. The incubation and acceleration services offered by Digital Magics are active in the TAG co-working campuses present throughout Italy. Complementary services include investment activities, which have produced over the years a portfolio of 70 investments in startups, scaleups and digital spinoffs with high growth rates. Accelerated companies are flanked by Digital Magics’ team, a partner of enormous business and digital experience, and benefit not only from the large network of private and institutional investors that support them through “club deals”, but also from the many partner companies that support them on an industrial scale.
Bank Akros S.p.A. acts as a Nomad and Specialist under the AIM Italia Issuers Regulations. For the transmission and storage of regulated information, Digital Magics makes use of the system of dissemination eMarket SDIR and the storage mechanism eMarket STORAGE available at the address  www.emarketstorage.com managed by Spafid Connect SpA.
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For further information:
Digital Magics – Press Office
Giorgio Bocchieri – Mail: giorgio.bocchieri@digitalmagics.com
Tel. 02 52505202 – Mob. 334 6853078
IR Top – Investor Relations
Floriana Vitale – Mail: f.vitale@irtop.com
Tel. 02 45473884
Bank Akros – Nomad
Mail: ecm@bancaakros.it
Tel. 02 434441
