The Magic Wand’s Investor Day is the stage for the 6 fintech and insurtech startups that have just completed this acceleration program organized by Digital Magics in partnership with the major players in the sector. Waiting for the 7th of June to know the evolution of the 6 projects, told by the finalists themselves, Layla Pavone (Board Member and Chief Innovation Marketing and Communication Officer of Digital Magic) reveals what happened in these 6 months of “daily fintech acceleration”. The Magic Wand’s Investor Day will be hosted by Fintech District at Copernico Isola for S32.

What were the phases of the program, from the beginning to the Investor Day?

Magic Wand is divided into 4 very operational phases. Its structure has been set up to help startups learn, test and consolidate products and services through the achievement of KPIs, step by step. There have been constant path checks to verify the ability to metabolize the tools and to test them, understanding if they were useful for the business of every single startup.
After the first Pitch Day, the selected startups faced the first phase (2 months), and six of them were admitted to the phases 2, 3 and 4, to arrive at the Magic Wand’s Investor Day. In the first phase (PRODUCT) from a fantastic idea they worked on the construction of a product to be validated. The themes were: product development, market definition, business model, team identification, MVP (minimum viable product).
The second phase was TESTING (product / market fit, A / B testing, product and pricing optimization). The third phase we called it REVENUE (first metric acquisition and revenue, KPI, pricing – Public Beta). The fourth was that relating to VALIDATION (metric KPI, team & business model, business plan).

On which aspects was it necessary to work harder?

The real challenge was to accompany the development of startups to the Magic Wand’s Investor Day with a “tailor made” logic, checking the effectiveness of the chosen instruments on a daily basis. Mentors have been fundamental in helping startups explore all the best solutions, accompanying them constructively, but not directly, and allowing them to develop, but also grow as responsible entrepreneurs.
The most critical part in sectors such as fintech and insurtech was verification and testing. We were aware of it from the beginning and, thanks to the experience of our incubator, it was a carefully planned aspect.

What were the most appreciated moments from startups?

The project, the content of the lessons and above all the network and the relationships were much appreciated. By getting in touch with companies and professionals, the startups were able to “better” explore their business model, market, solutions and the most effective ways to present, communicate and launch their product and service on the market. Through the qualified network of Digital Magics, the startups have been able to forge unique collaborations and activate essential testing phases.

In the next edition, in light of this first experience, what would you like to add or change?

Defining and structuring the program for this first edition, including the Magic Wand’s Investor Day, has taught us a lot. The experience, the constant collaboration between startups and partners has provided us with many ideas that we are working on, to make the second edition even more solid. We also plan to open the selection internationally.

In working with startups, what positively surprised you?

The energy, enthusiasm, commitment and competence we have encountered. The strength of Magic Wand lies first and foremost in the quality of the startup teams selected for the Investor day: motivated, talented and complete people who, with our support, will contribute to innovate the Italian fintech and insurtech sector.

At what level of internationalization are the startups that will participate in the Magic Wand’s Investor Day?

Magic Wand is the first Italian accelerator dedicated to FinTech and to InsurTech and we will continue to support the growth of 6 startups together with our partners. The Intesa Sanpaolo Group Innovation Center will offer access to its competence center on FinTech, the possibility of participating in international scale up platforms and partnerships with the most important research centers in the world, as well as creating proof of concept on products or services identified. Furthermore, having recently opened our London office in partnership with iStarter, we will be able to provide the opportunity to deal with international players.