CrescItalia is a fintech player constantly evolving and experiencing a moment of acceleration that has also included its entry into the Fintech District community. CEO Mattia Donadeo Spada describes its activities, growth and future objectives.
What CrescItalia does and who it addresses?
CrescItalia is a fintech acting as a hinge between non-bank capital and companies, with the aim of facilitating the meeting between the Italian entrepreneurial fabric and investors. Thanks to our integrated digital servicing platform, we accompany institutional investors in the processes of evaluation and validation of trade receivables, as well as in the management of investment operations. SMEs, in turn, find on the platform an intuitive, user-friendly environment that can be integrated with their existing ERP for access to our solutions, such as financing and invoice assignment. CrescItalia’s activity is therefore aimed at both categories: on the one hand, asset managers and institutional asset managers as well as institutional investors for whom we structure and manage alternative asset funds, guaranteeing compliance and real- time control of operations; on the other hand we find the SMEs to whom we provide these instruments.
At present, our platform manages the entire operation of the solution for the assignment of credits with the non-recourse formula, which makes the risk of insolvency fully borne by the investor. We initially focused on this solution because it is in great demand among companies, that can obtain immediate liquidity without having to be reported to the Central Risk Service and without having to pay an annual fee. CrescItalia thus quickly disburses the fee to the supplier according to the the supplier and according to the agreements reached, usually up to a maximum of 90% in advance and the rest in a subsequent balance, net of the costs of the transfer. We also operate in the field of reverse factoring and medium/long-term financing (minibonds).
How it has grown since its inception and its current numbers?
CrescItalia was founded in 2013 with the aim of offering innovative solutions to support the growth of small and medium-sized Italian companies. After an initial phase of activity in the specialised sector of minibonds with servicing and advisory operations for SGRs, in 2017/2018 we invested heavily in the development of a platform that would manage and monitor alternative asset funds in a streamlined and customised way. Since 2019 we have expanded our operations with the tried and tested and highly effective proprietary dynamic scoring module and the management of assignor and debtor side operations.
CrescItalia is now a lean and agile company, at the forefront of the Italian fintech scene and fintech landscape. It differs from other fintechs because of its decision to validate and build the elements of the business model by always confronting the market, thanks to which it has managed to do so. Thanks to this, it has been able to grow organically, financing capital investments until 2020 with capital increases covered entirely by the initial shareholders. In 2021, in anticipation of a more ambitious growth phase, it listed a fully subscribed bond on the Vienna Stock Exchange.
In terms of traction, CrescItalia has structured and/or serviced six alternative asset funds for over EUR 540 million with prestigious partners, and a further two are planned for 2022, for a further EUR 225 million. On the conveyancing side, in the field of invoice invoices, the volume in 2020 was EUR 17.928 million for 1886 invoices. In the first 8 months of 2021 the volume was EUR 13.738 million for 1065 invoices.
Is CrescItalia interested in open innovation projects? Have you already already done any?
To date, CrescItalia has not participated in any open innovation projects. Rather, at the moment, we are trying to collaborate with other fintechs and corporations to encourage and participate in projects that promote Open Banking for legal entities’ accounts (companies and VAT numbers).
How is your team composed?
We are experiencing a phase of strong acceleration in recent months, with important investments in growth and consolidation of the working team. Thanks to an intense recruiting campaign, the team has grown from seven people in May 2021 to twenty in December of the same year. Not only have new senior figures joined the team, but have an operations structure in the operations area.
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