Founders Factory and Mediobanca unite for fintech innovation with a €12 million startup studio and accelerator.
The world’s leading company builder and early-stage investor, Founders Factory, located in London, has teamed up with Mediobanca Group, the largest investment bank in Italy, to establish a new fintech startup studio and accelerator.
The new strategic collaboration is supported by a €12 million investment from Mediobanca, which intends to encourage international early-stage fintech businesses and further strengthen support for Italy’s thriving startup environment in order to facilitate innovation in financial services.
Over the next five years, the Mediobanca Group and Founders Factory intend to create and finance 35 fintech companies. In alignment with Mediobanca’s goals and capabilities, the venture studio will create, fund, and launch new fintech startups that use cutting-edge technologies, such blockchain and AI, to disrupt the financial services market.
A new accelerator program that would invest in and promote more established early-stage fintech businesses in Italy and abroad was also announced by Founders Factory and Mediobanca.
“In recent years, we have embraced the potential that technology has provided in the financial sector,” Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel said of the launch. We’ve done it in wealth management with CheBanca!, in consumer banking with Buy Now Pay Later, and in corporate and investment banking with the recent partnership with Arma Partners. We’ll keep doing it by using the latest technology to support our employees’ skills and our clients’ user experience.
“With this joint venture, we will seize new opportunities, further solidifying the Group’s technological ecosystem, as well as through the adoption of innovative models that will enable us to effectively respond to market expectations,” the joint venture’s mission statement reads.
Selected entrepreneurs will profit from Mediobanca’s commercial access to and understanding of many routes to financial practices, from wealth management to consumer banking, as well as from the worldwide network, operational assistance, and fintech experience of Founders Factory.
A “strengthening platform to support fintech founders”
CEO of Founders Factory Henry Lane Fox stated: “Mediobanca is one of Italy’s top financial organizations, with a presence across all of Europe. They understand the significance of technology’s role in the future of financial services and the systemic change it may bring, which makes them the ideal partner for Founders Factory. A strong platform to support fintech innovators is created by combining our venture-building skills and fintech expertise with Mediobanca’s history, financial prowess, and global ambition.
Acre, Qumata, and ClearGlass are just a few of the almost 50 financial technology businesses that Founders Factory has built and invested in. It also has a long-standing connection with UK financial services provider Aviva.
The cooperation was also mentioned by Fabio Troiani, chairman of Founders Factory Italy: “Among Italian banks, Mediobanca stands out as a forerunner, demonstrating a really unique management philosophy. They are connecting themselves with a forward-thinking operator in the industry by working with Founders Factory. Over the past seven years, corporate partners like Mediobanca have regularly benefited from transformative innovation and venture capital returns because to Founders Factory’s innovative methodology that combines operational assistance, venture capital, and innovation design.
