SMAU Paris: Innovation Center meets the French ecosystem with its startups

The foreign stages continue in partnership with SMAU

SMAU's foreign stages are a consolidated reality in the panorama of open innovation. The SMAU Paris stage, which took place from April 15th to 17th, is part of the activities of the SMAU Open Innovation Club 2024 project, which includes 4 stages in the year (London, Paris, San Francisco, and Milan) organized by the Italian enabler, with the aim of presenting and promoting the national innovative ecosystem internationally. Each stage involves startups, corporates, enablers, national and territorial public entities, and media.

Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center also participated as a partner in this stage - represented by Stefano Bruzzi - Innovation Network Development Manager - with the aim of internationally enhancing the Innovation Center and the innovative entities in its portfolio, meeting actors from the Italian and French ecosystems, and scouting new startups.

The meetings during the central day of the event were numerous and allowed both to present the activities of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center to local innovation players, with subsequent exploration of potential synergies with local accelerators and investors, and to present the company's growth programs aimed at the most promising international innovative entities.

Thanks to this activity, innovative solutions were collected for various structures of the Group potentially interested.

Within this activity, Stefano Bruzzi participated in the thematic panel "Boosting Innovation with Startups and Corporates for a new and smarter way of growth," aimed at the international audience present.

In the Paris stage (as well as in those in London and San Francisco), 3 startups from Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center's valorization portfolio were selected, each offered a space for networking and technological showcasing. The networking activities of the startups highlighted numerous potential matches with large corporates present at the event.

In terms of attracting new startups, the Innovation Center's space garnered particular interest during the event: more than 30 meetings with startups and innovative SMEs, compared to the 10 planned. A positive affirmation that will be followed by an evaluation for our commercial development programs.

As Stefano Bruzzi states: "the partnership with SMAU is a valuable collaboration for Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, capable of offering support for the company's international positioning and visibility to portfolio entities, as excellent actors in the Italian innovative panorama."

The SMAU 2024 tour will continue in May with the San Francisco stage: a new opportunity to showcase our startups and Innovation Center internationally.