In the atmosphere of uncertainty in which the coronavirus has put us, health, social and economic, it is encouraging to see how many companies have not hesitated to launch initiatives to support those at the forefront in the fight against this virus. The Fintech District’s corporate members have also done so and we are proud to share and support them.

• AXA Italy has financed a project to restructure the Reanimation and Intensive Care Unit of the Sacco Hospital in Milan. Thanks to a contribution of 500,000 euros, two new Air Treatment Units will be built to implement the first four beds, guaranteeing controlled biological contamination environments that are essential to protect patients and healthcare workers. A Surgical Room, one of a kind, will also be built for the possibility of performing small and medium surgery on patients with highly diffusible infections, keeping them within a highly protected environment.
• Banca Sella has launched three initiatives to support the economy for the coronavirus emergency. It has compiled a decalogue of banking and financial services that can be done through the App and Internet Banking, comfortably and safely from home. It’s promoting Vidra a free e-commerce service to support small shops that had to close due to the emergency. It launched an innovative platform for remote dialogue with customers. The bank chooses the video and web collaboration system developed by the scale-up Bandyer to communicate remotely with its customers.
• EY, through its EY Foundation, has launched a fundraising campaign to increase the number of intensive care places dedicated to Covid19. The donations will be donated in equal parts to the hospitals of the San Donato Group in Milan and to the Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli in Rome. Full transparency of the fundraising process and their use will be given thanks to an EY blockchain solution.
• IBM Italy has launched three initiatives of support and solidarity for the coronavirus emergency. Through its Foundation, it donated 250,000 euros to the Pope John XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, involving its employees and Business Partners in a fundraiser, open to all. By participating in “Solidarietà digitale”, it made available to the community a ibm.biz/ibmsolidarietadigital and a dedicated portal, and the U.S. Department of Energy relied on Summit, the most powerful supercomputer in the world, to model what could affect the infection process and identified 77 with the potential to compromise the ability of COVID-19 to attack and infect host cells.
• UBI Banca Group has chosen to support more than 12 healthcare institutions and research centres directly involved in the management of the coronavirus emergency with 5 million euro of funding. In order to give immediate concrete form to its commitment, UBI Banca will also donate two ambulances which will be destined in a very short time to the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. Details of the project.
• Zurich Group has chosen to support the National Health System with a donation of 650,000 euros in order to deal with the coronavirus emergency. Thanks to a fundraising campaign shared by employees, agents, the company and the “Z Zurich Foundation“, 650,000 euros were donated to the Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan, the Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, the Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo and the Cotugno Hospital in Naples. Employees and agents joined forces to make a concrete contribution and, for each euro donated, Zurich Italia and the Z Zurich Foundation contributed an equal amount. Zurich Italia also offered its support to hospital facilities to facilitate the procedures for purchasing medical devices and other instruments needed to deal with the Covid-19 emergency.

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What can a community, founded to create synergies and foster collaboration in the fintech sector, do in a moment like this when the country where it is based is going through an emergency that will be remembered in history? Undoubtedly collect all things valuable and useful made by its members, support it, amplify it, so it can reach as many people as possible.

With a fintech spirit which takes fuel from innovative and digital tools and services orienteered towards the future, but still capable of looking at current needs and responding quickly and effectively, we move on. At this time also the fintechs of the Fintech District community have proved to be active and responsive in giving support for the Coronavirus emergency.

Here is a collection of the proposed initiatives. Not only hashtags such as #iorestoacasa and #andràsuttobene but concrete actions.

• AppQuality, the Italian leader in Crowdtesting, is offering free online consultations to help managers implement and improve their smart working culture. Also, since many ecommerce websites are struggling to keep up with their customers’ expectations, AppQuality is happy to provide a free test of their checkouts
• Borsa del Credito has created Cash anti Covid-19, a 6-month bullet loan designed to cover 100% of current SME expenses for the next six months (wages and salaries, rents, utilities).
• Catapush offers free of charge and for the entire period of the emergency for Covid-19 the instant messaging application Catapush Messenger to local, provincial and regional Administrations, Civil Protection, Hospitals, Red Cross, other public authorities involved, to allow them to communicate directly from their systems with staff, volunteers, doctors, staff etc. on the territory and/or with citizens. (Rest API, On Line DEMO)
• DeRev, free of charge, provides its team and its experience in strategic communication and crisis management to support national and regional institutions, municipalities, health facilities and politicians who in these days have the task of informing, raising awareness and assisting citizens in the most correct and effective way possible.
• Fintech4i Monday, March 23rd organized the webinar “How I fight you COVID” to raise funds for the coronavirus emergency. Thanks to 4 experienced traders will analyze price movements in this historical phase of modern finance. All revenues will be donated to the Italian Red Cross.
• GrowishPay allows Italian ecommerce to donate a share of their sales to entities or non-profit organizations in this moment of emergency through the GROWISHCHARITY solution that also provides a widget in real time to view the total amount donated and transfer the donations collected to the beneficiary organization.
• Hype offers its customers the possibility to make a donation directly from its app, using the “send money” function, to help the ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco hospital, in Milan, to which fintech itself has already donated 25K €.
• Lita.co Italy launched “Call for Italy“, in partnership with Entopan. It’s a program to help startups, SMEs and big companies to overcome the crisis after COVID-19 emergency. They want to support the growth of innovative projects through investments, educational programmes and advisory on innovation. Call for Italy is an ecosystem made of financial partners, investments funds, banks and innovation consultant, all committed to help companies with high level services to face and overcome the crisis.
• October suspends capital repayments for a period of 3 months for more than 500 SMEs with active repayment schedules. This measure will be initiated automatically and without any bureaucratic procedures by entrepreneurs. October will renounce the fees charged to SMEs throughout the period as a further sign of its efforts.
• Opstart, Ener2crowd and gimme5 have launched a special fundraiser on the portal www.fintech4life.it in favour of Cesvi, committed to supporting the Pope John XXIII Hospital of Bergamo and to supporting the over-65s in the cities of Bergamo and Milan, with home help.
• PINV Documentale enables you to safely send, receive and store accounting and financial documents. No more sifting through emails, chats or jumping from one platform to another. No matter where you are, you and your accountant will share a single online platform where everything will be easily available 24/7
• Satispay invites its community to support the Civil Protection through its Donations service. The money collected through the association 1 Caffè Onlus will be donated entirely to the Civil Protection, which in turn will allocate the funds to the Italian health care, especially to hospital doctors working towards containing the contagion.
• Soisy will cancel commissions on all investments until June 10 to all investors of Soisy to remove obstacles to the flow of investment to the economy
• Splitted (by Splitty Pay) has launched a fundraising campaign in collaboration with the Don Gnocchi Foundation and the Director of the crisis unit, Paolo Banfi, for the purchase of new ventilators to strengthen the intensive care unis. The funds raised will be donated to the foundation as soon as the amount for the purchase of the equipment is reached.
• Starteed, Oval and Walliance have launched #ioRestoaCasa, a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the Department of Civil Protection to support healthcare units facing the Coronavirus emergency.
• In this context of health crisis, Swikly is showing its solidarity by offering its online security deposit service free of charge until 31 August in order to help vacation rental professionals, camping professionals as well as car rental companies to make a success of their season, in the best health and safety conditions.
• Revolut supports Humanitas hospitals involved in the Coronavirus emergency through the Donations function within the app. Donations will be used to provide hospitals with medical devices and materials needed to protect the most fragile patients.

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