Magic Wand is the first accelerating programme dedicated to the FinTech and the InsurTech sectors created in collaboration with Fintech District and managed by Digital Magics together with 10 partners (BNL BNP Paribas Group, Credito Valtellinese, Ersel Investimenti, Innovation Center of Intesa Sanpaolo, Innogest, Poste Italiane, SellaLab, SisalPay , Royal Mutual Assets Company and UBI Banca). They have actively participate in the selection and they are going to participate in mentorship and development of the winning startups.

On 15 of January 2018 in the Fintech District building S32, 8 of the 10 projects selected have been announced and presented. These startups will receive a first grant of 5.000 Euros and the acceleration of 6 months in the Milan office of Digital Magics incubator.

The aim of Magic Wand is to create an Italian centre of excellence for the most important market operators, as explained by Gabriele Ronchini, founder and CEO of Digital Magics.

Among the over 50 original business ideas for the financial and insurance market submitted, the first 8 selected were: #InvestFT, Axieme, Cloudesire, Coverholder, DIAMAN Tech, Moneymour, MyCreditService and Spreadoff.

The programme starts with a two months acceleration period during which dozens of advisors will be available the many training opportunities, courses, workshops and masterclasses. After this first step, there will be a second selection that will elect the 6 best startups that will conclude the 6 months of Magic Wand acceleration programme.

Finalist startups will receive a second grant of 15,000 Euros and will have the opportunity to be part of the Digital Magics incubator, starting a high valuable course. SellaVentures (Banca Sella Group), Innogest, Neva Finventures (Intesa Sanpaolo Group) and Digital Magics also decided to reserve the possibility of investing in the Magic Wand finalist startups that will have achieved the set goals and the KPIs.

Let’s introduce here the first 8 winning startups, in alphabetical order.

#InvestFT is a robo-advisor of alternative-finance investments, connecting in a single place all the opportunities supplied by Italian ad European platforms relating to Peer to Peer Lending, equity crowdfunding, invoice trading and real estate crowdfunding.

Axieme provides an innovative service to supply insurance with a social mechanism. Customers buy their insurance with a group of people with similar needs. Risks are spread, by sharing information within the community, and if there are no accidents, users get a refund.

Cloudesire is a Cloud Monetization and Brokering Platform that enables automated SaaSification and immediate distribution of Business Applications. Financial players and service providers, with its services, can help their clients more effectively.

Coverholder is a tech startup that aims to simplify, integrate and customize the insurance brokerage process. Its IT technical team has developed a web platform for insurance underwriting activity, aiming to optimize the intermediary’s user experience. Through an integrated system of algorithms Coverholder has achieved a very high level of efficiency and dramatically reduced the timing related to quote and policy issuance cycle.

DIAMAN Tech is an Italian innovative startup that develops technological solutions to help asset managers in reducing risk and finding new opportunities in the financial markets. With its financial web-based platform, this startup supports their customers in the investment decision-making processes, using as provider for funds data feed FIDA in the EXANTE platform.

Moneymour provides instant financing for eCommerce purchases. Its payment methods allow people to buy now and pay later. The customer can choose in full simplicity and transparency, the decision is taken instantly through a powerful proprietary algorithm that calculates the credit risk and the risk of fraud by taking into account credit history and thousands of other social and behavioural variables on the client’s web site.

MyCreditService is a startup that developed the first platform for managing the entire working capital cycle in a single solution.

Spreadoff is a solution that allows travellers to exchange rate-free currency with peer to peer solutions within their community.