RETAIL REVOLUTION: THE NEW ACCELERATOR “MAGIC WAND” BY DIGITAL MAGICS FOR STARTUPS IN THE RETAIL SECTOR

RETAIL REVOLUTION: THE NEW ACCELERATOR “MAGIC WAND” BY DIGITAL MAGICS FOR STARTUPS IN THE RETAIL SECTOR

Auchan Retail Italia, Cisco, Nava Design, Nexi, RDS 100% GRANDI SUCCESSI, SisalPay and UBI Banca are the partners of the first acceleration program that focuses on innovation in the retail sector, on the relationship with multichannel consumers and on the creation of the store of the future

The best Italian startups will be selected and will have access to the program: 2 months with over 300 hours of qualified training, an available grant and 4 months focused on business, product and service development

The Call is open until January 13, 2019 on http://magicwand.digitalmagics.com

 

At the end of the program the 6 finalists will enter the portfolio of the Incubator listed on the Stock Exchange

Milan, December 4 2018 – After the success and the results obtained by the accelerator for the FinTech and the InsurTech, Digital Magics, the most important incubator of digital startups “Made in Italy”, which is active throughout Italy, launches “Magic Wand Retail Revolution”: the first acceleration program in Italy dedicated to the Retail sector, tailored for startups in their early stage.

Auchan Retail Italia, Cisco, Nava Design, Nexi, RDS 100% GRANDI SUCCESSI, SisalPay and UBI Banca are the partners of the program and will be directly involved in the selection, mentorship and development of the selected startups, which are designing innovative and original products and services for the retail market (platforms, infrastructures and technological tools, Artificial Intelligence, smart stores, product digital customisation, customer experience, logistics, advanced payment systems and blockchain).

“Magic Wand Retail Revolution” represents a system alliance between important Italian brands that have understood the strategic nature of innovation in the relationship with their customers. The goal is to innovate the retail market and retail services, and improve the offline and online customer experience, for an increasingly connected, smart, integrated and multi-channel company. The program aims to support the development and growth of the best Italian startups, which are designing internationally scalable business models, bringing them to the “go to market”.

The Retail market is growing all over the world: in 2017 online and offline retail sales of products are up 10.1% in China, +3.8% in the US, +2.5% in the UK, +2,2% in Germany, +1.4% in France and +1.2% in Italy. The e-commerce product market only is worth €670 billion in China, €400 billion in the US, €70 billion in the UK, €50 billion in Germany, €45 billion in France and €12 billion in Italy (Source: 2017, Research conducted by the Digital Innovation Observatory in the Retail of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan –  www.osservatori.net).

Today there are more than 1,600 innovative Italian startups that potentially deal with ‘Retail’, about 17% of the over 9,700 currently registered in the appropriate Register (43.5% e-commerce, 16.3% AI, 11.3% IoT, 10.9% Big Data, 9.7% logistics, 3.7% retail and GDO, 2.7% Bot and Chatbot and 1.9% fidelity and loyalty programs (Source: Analysis of InfoCamere, Atoka, CERVED, performed by Digital Magics).

To apply for “Magic Wand Retail Revolution”, applicants may submit their project by January 13, 2019 on http://magicwand.digitalmagics.com. The 10 finalist startups will begin the acceleration program in February 2019, inside the incubator Digital Magics in Milan, and will immediately receive a contribution of  EUR 5,000.

The first 2 months of the program will be dedicated to qualified training: over 300 hours of courses, workshops and master classes with operators in the various areas of a store, CEO’s of large companies and successful startups, managers, marketing and growth hacking experts, creatives and developers of platforms and interfaces.

In April 2019 there will be a further selection: the 6 best startups of the 10 initially selected will enter the portfolio of the incubator listed on the Stock Exchange and will complete the acceleration process. The 6 startups will also receive, following the start of the second phase, a cash investment of EUR 15,000, in addition to the investment in acceleration services, provided by Digital Magics.

A Program Manager, acceleration program partners and reference mentors of Digital Magics team will support the 6 finalist startups in the last 4 months, monitoring them with periodic meetings to bring their growth forward: working on KPIs and on products and services, defining the objectives and metrics to be achieved and improving the business model up to the “go to market”.

At the end of the program an Investor Day will be organised for the winning startups of “Magic Wand Retail Revolution”, which will present their innovations to the most important Italian and international business angels and investment funds. Digital Magics will in turn invest in the investment rounds of the 6 finalist startups.

“The satisfaction and success, in terms of quality and results, obtained by our acceleration program “Magic Wand” dedicated to FinTech, which ended last July, convinced us to start immediately with a second project, this time focused on the Retail world: ‘Magic Wand Retail Revolution’. After constantly analysing the digital trends on an Italian and international level, the worlds of retail, MMR and e-commerce represent in my opinion the areas that have changed more than others in the last ten years and that will change again, in the next future, thanks to the technologies. For this reason we have chosen to open a specific focus on Retail. We want to make a strong contribution to the innovation of this market, starting from the startup business models, which will work together with us and partner companies, in order to create new retail players and stores of the future,” said Layla Pavone, Digital Magics Chief Innovation Marketing and Communication Officer.

 

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. 

For further information:

Digital Magics – Press Office

Giorgio Bocchieri – Mail: giorgio.bocchieri@digitalmagics.com

Tel. 02 52505202 – Mob. 334 6853078