Sardex is one of the first fintech companies to have joined the Fintech District community, but it has never ceased to amaze us with its growth, enthusiasm and innovation. Marco De Guzzis, CEO of Sardex S.p.A, tells us about the latest news and his future goals.

Why did you decide to launch this campaign and what do you expect?

Sardex has always worked towards building an active and engaged community. The idea of involving our members in the company’s capital seemed a natural choice. Obviously, the operation is open to the entire investor market. Today Sardex is a solid reality, at the end of 2020 we had 10,000 open B2B accounts and over 120 million transactions in complementary currency: it is the right time to measure ourselves against the capital market and understand how we are perceived, also with a view also to a possible future listing. The first signs on the BacktoWork platform are very positive: in just over two weeks we have 140 subscribers for over EUR 640,000, and we still have a month to go.

How will you use the money raised?

To exponentially increase the benefits for those who are or will be part of the Community. On the one hand, to intensify the growth rate of subscribers and national coverage. The more the community grows, the more opportunities for participants. On the other hand, in technology. SardexPay is a fintech based on people and on a strong and shared value system, but technology is essential for the functioning of the community: marketplace, transactional platform, digital account, e-commerce integration, mixed sardex/euro payments need to be refined and evolved to improve the user experience and release new services.

What are your growth targets for 2021?

With the new 2020-2024 plan Sardex has changed its pace. In 2020, the number of new members grew by 78%, transactions exceeded 120 million goods and services exchanged without touching a single euro; we covered 15 regions in Italy, we doubled revenues from new services offered to members to finance investments in complementary currency and involved employees. The year 2021 should further strengthen these trends and the first signs are excellent. For example, new members are growing by over 80% and 145% in the new geographies.

The role of sardex and fintech in the pandemic

The pandemic has been a great accelerator in terms of the adoption of new technologies for many people and businesses. In a context that was certainly not easy, Sardex managed to fulfil its mission: to be at the service of the SME sector and offer them complementary credit instruments, opportunities to intercept and acquire new customers and manage collections and payments in an absolutely punctual manner. According to the ISTAT report on competitiveness, 48% of Italian SMEs risk collapsing due to a lack of liquidity, missing the train to recovery. We will be at their side. More generally, we are going through a very rapid phase of change and general reorganisation of the economic fabric, which may represent a dual opportunity. On the one hand, for the business system, which can emerge from this situation with renewed knowledge and awareness of many aspects, such as finance and technology. On the other hand, for fintech operators, who must now carve out a leading role for themselves in a market that has seen them emerge, continuall but not yet consolidated properly.

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Valore Condiviso is an innovative and sustainable project that aims to create value through real estate crowdfunding and share it with the proposing lenders of its community.

The operations presented on Valore Condiviso are the result of a negotiation that takes into account all the actors involved,.There is a particular attention to the NPL market that allows to give value to the so-called impaired real estate credits and solve debt situations in a sustainable way.

Valore Condiviso is the first platform in Italy that uses blockchain technology in the NPL sector and has recently launched its second project after successfully raising the target amount in the launch phase. The short-term goal is to strengthen the community and become a reference point in this niche sector.

Watch the interview with Founder Alberto Papa

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Backtowork in recent months has accumulated several new stories to tell. We decided to ask Alberto Bassi for an update asking him also a comment on 2020 and some anticipations for 2021.

Intesa SanPaolo has invested twice in BacktoWork. How is the relationship with this player developing and what developments do you expect?

After the entry into BacktoWork’s capital in 2019 by Neva Finventures, Intesa Sanpaolo’s corporate venture capital, the transfer of shares to parent company Intesa Sanpaolo Spa, carried out in August 2020, confirms the Group’s industrial interest in our crowd-investing platform and its desire to strengthen existing synergies.
In this first year of collaboration between BacktoWork and Intesa Sanpaolo, not only have we been able to speed up our development, accelerating results on all the main KPI’s, but we have also built the foundations for important synergies with different departments of the bank and its ecosystem, and those synergies has already started to show the first important results.
I do not hide my satisfaction at having succeeded very quickly in creating a strong relationship with Intesa Sanpaolo’s private banking department. That relationship allowed us in Q1 2020 to set a new record for Italian equity crowdfunding market with Fin-Novia’s campaign, which was not only one of the largest ever in Europe, but also the first to be achieved with the full support of a private banking network, specifically the largest in Italy.
In the coming months the common goal is to speed up the effects of those synergies, scaling up volumes and offering more and more companies and investors innovative solutions for their needs.

What satisfaction has 2020 given you ?

In a difficult market situation such as the one we are all experiencing, the greatest satisfaction is that we have managed to drive the company’s growth in an important way from all points of view, consolidating a structure that allowed in 2020 more than 45 companies to raise capital on the market, financing their development plans. Comparing to 2019 we’ve been able to double the number of companies that has been financed, more than double the number of investors and, most important, doubled the capital raised. For our kind of business this is the main indicators that shows company’s growth.
Two years after our entrance in the crowdfunding in 2020 we managed to become one of the leading players, but we are far from satisfied: this is just the beginning.

What were the biggest challenges?

First and foremost, the sustainability of the business model. Ours is a very competitive and fast-growing market but the tools we offer to companies and investors are still little known. Reconciling an important marketing activity to the sustainability of the business is the great challenge that we are facing and that awaits us in the coming months. In the course of 2020, thanks also to the conditions in which we found ourselves due to Covid, we started to work a lot on this issue. As agreed with our main partner Intesa Sanpaolo our goal for the coming years will be to establish a profitable, sustainable and long lasting business.

From your private observation point on the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem, how did you see the change in project proposals for the Covid19 crowdfunding case?

Of course a lot has changed in the past few months, and we can see that not only in the Italian startup ecosystem but at a global scale. I believe though that it is necessary to make a distinction between fashion and the real value that companies can generate for themselves, for their customers and for investors. In the last few months we have seen incredible changes in many industries, some of them are flying while others have suffered a sharp slowdown. Just think, for example, of the tourism industry, which has been hit hardest by the pandemic. In this situation the approach of a conscious investor to this type of asset class, same as always, should be the long-term one. Although many companies had change their business model, this is not necessarily the answer in the medium-long term. I believe that those businesses that already before covid had all the necessary elements to sustain growth, starting for example with a strong team, will be successful anyway. The pandemic won’t last forever and the investors know that!

Has the attitude of investors also changed?

In times of uncertainty on the markets, when investment decisions require more time, prudence and reflection, I must say that we were impressed by how our network of investors reacted. More and more this type of asset class, with the appropriate diversification that we always suggest with our investor education, is perceived as anti-cyclical and therefore suitable even in times of short-term uncertainty.

Fintech District has launched the first digital course on technology and innovation in the financial sector. Promoted in collaboration with ItaliaFintech this project has, as its teachers, experts, industry leaders and entrepreneurs whose companies are shaping the fintech market both nationally and internationally.

This course is part of a larger training project on the theme of fintech, the Fintech District Academy, created by its team during the months of lockdown with the idea that the recovery of our country today also passes through innovation and digitization of services, primarily financial services and it is therefore important to spread and enhance the culture of fintech throughout the country.

The Fintech Masterclass is the first course promoted in the Academy. The course is designed for executives, entrepreneurs and young professionals and is divided into 6 modules:

1. “Discover Fintech“: analyzes and deepens the fintech phenomenon and current trends
2. “Regulation & Technology“: identifies and understands both the current regulatory framework and the technologies most widely used in financial services.
3. “The fintech taxonomy“: describes how individual fintech verticals operate with a focus on their business models.
4. “Open innovation: Collaborating with the Fintechs“: describes the processes and opportunities that occur through collaborations in the financial ecosystem.
5. “The most promising startups“: describes the market trends and gives way to the most active and promising fintech startups on the market, to tell their story through their c-levels
6. “Wrapping up”: conclusion including the video of ItaliaFintech, concerning the current situation and the future challenges of the sector, together with the final test of conclusion of the course

At the end of the course participants will be able to identify opportunities and build strategies to adopt fintech solutions and innovate the digital offer of Financial Services. They will also be offered the opportunity to network by sharing ideas and confronting a network of experienced entrepreneurs and thought leaders from the Italian fintech ecosystem. Almost 20 hours of e-learning are available, with the contribution of more than 30 professionals. A final test is foreseen to obtain a certificate of completion.

With the aim of making the course accessible to as many people as possible, Fintech District has launched on DeRev the Empower Fintech Knowledge campaign to be able to attend the course at a reduced price. At the same time, Fintech District will offer a maximum of 20 free accesses to deserving talents.

To participate in the selection for free access, simply send your curriculum vitae to education@fintechdistrict.com attaching your CV (including authorization for the processing of personal data) and entering “TALENT – Reward Crowdfunding”.

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Thanks to the availability of the French fintech LITA.co, operating also in Italy and dealing for years with impact investing, we have the opportunity to discover how both the preferences of investors and those of the projects presented have changed, due to the health emergency for the coronavirus. Stefano Rossi, Country Manager Italy of LITA.CO tells us how this fintech has operated and what he has noticed.

What does LITA.co do and who does it address to?

LITA.co is the first equity crowdfunding platform focusing on impact investing. Our goal is clear: to democratize impact finance. We empower common people to invest alongside with professional investors in companies that aim to generate a positive social and environmental impact, in parallel with a financial return. All the companies on LITA.co answer to at least one of the Sustainable Development Goals. We believe in the growing propensity of investors to take into account extra-financial criteria and we are committed to reconcile the needs of ethical investors with the financial needs of social entrepreneurs.

What impact has the health emergency on your business? How did you deal with it?

The COVID crisis had a strong impact for us, both in positive and negative way. As many equity crowdfunding platforms (not only in Italy) we experienced a decrease of interest related to some fields of business and investments. Indeed, COVID caused the failure of one of our campaigns: SEAY is a virtuous startup operating in the sustainable fashion industry, and as the crisis raised all the committed investors have been forced to step back. Most of them are working in the fashion industry too and, as you know, this sector suffered and it is still suffering the crisis, so they decided to exercise their right to withdraw the investment.
In the opposite way, COVID crisis and the forced lockdown highlighted social impact and sustainability topics for several industry, as the Italian agri-food production. Another campaign, Humus, was focused on this topic. The crisis gifted this engaging social impact startup an unexpected media exposure which led to new business partnerships and also to the successful overfunding of the equity crowdfunding campaign.

Have you launched ad hoc initiatives?

As group, we reset our fees on investors, encouraging a very good answer. As LITA.co Italy, we launched a call for sustainable enterprise working in the fishing industry and in the related supply chain: the award named “Premio Finanza Sostenibile per il Mediterraneo” (literally “Award Sustainable Finance for the Mediterranean Sea”) was born – in partnership with Chimica Verde Bionet and Legacoop – to valorise and enhance the sustainability in this so important sector. Furthermore, we participated to initiatives launched from other companies, like Entopan and Mamazen, to help startups and SMEs to boost their development after the crisis.

Have you noticed a change of attitude of investors due to the pandemic?

This global emergency has raised the awareness of the urgency of the green transition, as well as the economic and social impact of individuals’ behaviours. We are all more aware of the need of investments in healthcare, in widespread digitalization (to not leave anyone behind), in education and into social inclusion, as of course in green businesses. This trend was already set but we believe it will raise more and more in the next months.

And in the type of projects submitted?

We are perceiving more social openness to innovation. The time is right to leave behind the unsustainable Silicon Valley model and to experiment a new “Community Capitalism”. We must focus on communities and places as new centre of our development agenda, adopting new business models: profit companies pursuing social goals supporting the local economic development.

Which ones are the most successful today and why?

Today and in the future, projects and businesses with positive impact on communities will gain more and more attention from customers and investors. People pays more attention to brands with a clear and shared vision of the world, committed to a real positive impact on society and environment.

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Recrowd is an innovative startup that was founded in October 2018 to offer savers an alternative way for investing their savings by digitizing and simplifying the investment process through lending crowdfunding and using an easy-to-understand asset such as real estate. Through this platform we offer people the opportunity to invest in real estate even if they do not have large capital, lending their money at a rate defined in advance. On the other hand, we offer companies operating in the real estate sector a fast and secure solution to raise funds and easily manage all the bureaucracy related to the individual real estate project.

Recrowd works mainly with companies operating in Italy and offers them 4 types of projects to present to investors on the platform. “These types differ in risk, minimum capital, duration and return. In order to make the most of investors’ capital and to adapt as much as possible to their risk profiles – explains Gianluca De Simone, CEO of Recrowd – we are also the first real estate crowdfunding platform to have included personalized negotiations that allows the negotiation of the rate at which money is lent between the company that proposes the project and the investor user registered on the platform”.

To finance the activities of the first 4 months Recrowd launched an equity crowdfunding campaign in March 2019 with which it raised 418 thousand euros selling 12% of the company shares. “This allowed us to put together an under-30 team of 6 people who interface with the company’s contacts every day in order to better structure all the processes related to the crowdfunding campaigns that will then be presented on our platform – explains De Simone – We have placed ourselves in a fast growing market with the right timing. Investors on our platform are growing monthly and we are increasingly aware of, and confident, in the possibilities that crowdfunding offers in this sector. We are still at the beginning but conditions are more than good”.

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How’s Crowdfundme doing a year after its listing on Piazza Affari? How is crowdfunding equity getting on during quarantine? Tommaso Baldissera Pacchetti, Founder of Crowdfundme, tells us what he thinks about this, with a lot of pragmatism but also a lot of initiative, a distinctive characteristic of his company.

From March 2019 to the present, let’s retrace the milestones of your growth in these 12 months from your listing to date.

With the listing on Piazza Affari, CrowdFundme has become the bridge between fintech and traditional finance. The capital raised with the stock market landing served to accelerate our growth, especially in the second half of 2019. In fact, the portal raised more than 6.2 million euros compared to approximately 3.7 million euros in the first six months. In 2019, Consob also introduced important regulatory changes, thanks to which this year we will be able to implement the,so-called secondary market,and also place Mini-Bonds. CrowdFundMe will thus become the benchmark for Crowdinvesting, being able to offer a wide range of both Equity and Corporate Debt investment products.

Entering the real estate market. Why this choice and objectives?

The real estate market presents great opportunities, starting from Milan which is the most dynamic Italian city in this sector and the envy of several European metropolises. The data for the first quarter of 2020 certifies the potential of Real Estate Crowdfunding: it has collected over 14 million euros, improving on the record of the last three months of 2019. CrowdFundMe wants to allow investors to seize the potential of this sector, fully in line with its philosophy of offering different financial products for different types and markets, in order to build a diversified portfolio.

With the coronavirus emergency how have you changed your business strategy and the way you work as a team?

CrowdFundMe is fully operational, in the maximum security of all, thanks to smart working. The coronavirus emergency has made us reprogram part of our activities, with the aim of prioritizing the campaigns of companies that are relatively impacted by the coronavirus or that are possibly accelerated. This is the case of Tulips, an online supermarket that is benefiting from the e-commerce boom; people, forced to stay at home, are increasing the use of the web to shop and our broadcaster is recording a strong increase in demand and turnover. Its campaign has closed in the last days reaching a maximum target of 300,000 euros.

From your point of view what will be the impact of this pandemic on the crowdfunding sector, both on the corporate and crowd side?

Due to the coronavirus some Equity Crowdfunding campaigns will be postponed until better times. Investments, especially in some sectors, are likely to slow down. However, as explained for the case of Tulips, there are realities which are being accelerated by the current circumstances. If, on the other hand, we think of the companies that are suffering, it has to be said that the liquidity crisis is pushing many of these to use alternative financing. CrowdFundMe’s products are therefore becoming essential to find the resources needed to overcome the difficulties of this period and prepare for the reopening phase. To date, many elements are uncertain and it is not possible to make precise forecasts, but we are confident that our ability to adapt to the circumstances will allow us to continue on our path of growth. If we look at the first quarter of 2020, CrowdFundMe’s results were positive despite the impact of the coronavirus, with the collection marking a new record at around €4 million.

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For Walliance, 2019 was a splendid year, raising 61% of capital compared to 2018 and preparing for the launch of its platform in France. We met with Leonardo Grechi to get a better idea of the present and future of this brilliant Italian proptech.

What do you think was the main reason for your success in 2019?

Communication. We chose to speak clearly and transparently to investors explaining the company’s needs and responded well by increasing both the number of investments and the amount of money invested for individual projects.

The 3 most important projects of the year?

Milano NOLO and Milano Naviglio Grande and a project on Florence, all of which developed during the second half of 2019. They were the most significant because we raised a lot of capital in a very short time: one million in 5 hours in the first, Milano Nolo; 1.650 million in 3 hours on Milano Naviglio Grande and 3 million for the Florence project in 5 hours.

For this year you have announced the launch in France. With what objectives?

That’s correct. We have actually already opened there as already authorized by AMF, the French Consob. The goal is mainly to gather projects to allow Italian investors to invest in the French market. In the second phase, we would also like to allow French investors to invest in the Italian market.

Why in France?

We noticed that from the point of view of corporate law it is a country similar to ours, so of all the countries in the union, it was the one where it made the most sense to go to from our point of view. We are also waiting for the European regulation on crowdfunding that will allow us to cross-board with other countries as well.

How do you think the Italian Real Estate Crowdfunding market is doing?

It’s really growing. The numbers are double-digit year-on-year. This is partly due to the general trend of crowdfunding, but in real estate, resources are being raised for projects that have a bigger average cut, definitely bigger than a startup, and that’s why the volume of money is increasing.

How could this further growth be encouraged?

By clarifying the regulations since there is a big difference between crowdfunding and lending crowdfunding equity platforms. Finding harmony between these two instruments, also from a regulatory point of view, can give a big hand to the whole sector for its growth.

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A new crowdfunding campaign for Soisy after the great success of last year, again with 200crowd. Pietro Cesati, CEO & Founder, tells about the next goals and the growth registered.

How much has Soisy grown since its birth and how is it evolving?

Soisy’s growth is always capable of surprising us. For example, in September we achieved a result that was +50% compared to the previous month. Today in Soisy we are originating 900 new loans per month which mean about €10 million worth of transactions per year. When we think we started two and a half years ago and the first month we made 17 loans, it is certainly a remarkable growth and it does not seem to stop. In the last year, for example, we quadrupled. Being in a market we are still exploring, things seem still easy, and we believe that it will still be possible to grow at these rates for the next few years.

How did the collaboration with Afone start and what advantages did it bring?

The opportunity with Afone was born quite randomly. At the Netcomm forum last year a person looking like Johnny Deep approached our stand but was actually Roberto Galati, the Country Manager of Afone, a payment gateway, a company offering a package of payment methods to e-commerces. He was not amongst our typical customers at that time because we were mainly there to meet e-commerce, but his idea was to add Soisy as a payment method to the suite of payments he was already offering to e-commerce. We explore this idea with him since we very much liked it. It took us a few months to implement it, mainly to solve legal problems. Fortunately, there weren’t many technological problems because both Soisy and Afone are high tech-companies! For a few months now Afone has been offering Soisy’s instalment payment method in its suite. This means all Afone e-commerce customers can easily add the Soisy instalment option to their payment methods without registering on the Soisy platform or signing a contract with us. They don’t even have to make a technological integration. They just have to sign the deal with Afone and get their payment method. This gives them an advantage, gives Afone the opportunity to offer a better product and, of course, gives us the chance to reach a wider audience of e-commerces.

In Soisy you believe very much in smart working: what are the reasons for this choice?

Soisy’s smart working was born from the need to reach people who were valuable to us but had no intention of moving to Milan. The first person we hired in smart working was working at Osimo and we absolutely wanted to get him on board in Soisy. We started doing smart working to be able to reach more people. That is the main advantage: we can expand enormously the number of people with whom we can work, but that’s not the only benefit. By doing smart working for years we have realized there are many other upsides. For example, being able to concentrate, since modern offices and open spaces are places of mass distraction: being able to work alone at your desk is a huge value given by smart working.

Why a new crowdfunding campaign? With what objectives?

The new capital raise relates to the phase in which Soisy is currently. We have validated the product and the market. This is a phase of pure growth in which we do not want to have distractions coming from the funding needs. That’s why we are looking to raise capital for approximately two and a half million euros. That should give us the financial peace of mind to get to the breakeven and beyond. What is the goal of this round? Certainly to continue improving the product. At the moment we are the market leader on e-commerce instalment payments. However, the world is moving and we must continue to invest in the product to be able to by o maintain this leadership in a market that is huge counting tens of billions of euros in transactions each year and growing because it follows the trend of the transition from the world of transactions in physical stores to the world of online transactions. To do this we will leverage the same crowdfunding campaign as we did last year. Last year our campaign gave us great satisfaction both for the results and the type of conversations we managed to have with our investors who decided to participate and our members and journalists who were interested in the campaign. Again this year we have not hesitated to organize a campaign that will raise at least one and a half million euro, a substantial part of our capital increase. Just as last year it will be featured in 200crowd.

Last September BacktoWork24 took part in the House of Genius evening, an international format Fintech District has brought to Italy. It was an opportunity to listen to tips from people with very different sectoral backgrounds and also reflect on the next step as explained by Edoardo Reggiani, Head of Business Development

Why did you decide to participate in House of Genius? What made you curious about it?

Working every day on the growth of a young innovative company is certainly an exciting experience but you often risk being too busy with deadlines and various short-term tasks to be able to find a moment to analyze the problems through an external eye.

It immediately sounded like an excellent opportunity to be able to deal with “Genius”, with very different backgrounds and expertise with the aim of focusing on a specific problem within an already established format. Moreover, I thought it was an interesting and winning idea to get rid of job titles and the industry to which they belong. It was almost like doing a survey among anonymous users but in a super-efficient way in terms of timing and output.

Are there any tips that have been particularly helpful to you?

Without doubt, explaining a specific business problem in a limited time to people with very different sector backgrounds is in itself a very useful training, which can help you to better understand the leverage to use for “telling” the company outside.

It was very interesting and encouraging to see that we’re actually implementing many of the solutions proposed by the Genius. This is further confirmation of the fact that we have focused our improvement strategies well within the company! But not only: I was impressed by the understanding that user engagement solutions, which I already knew could be applied to other web-based services and that many “Genius” operating in other industries know well, are absolutely applicable to our industry and could bring significant improvements.

Since a major bank like Banca Intesa invested in you, what has changed and how did you grow?

Undoubtedly the round which closed in June strengthened our position in the market in an immediate and significant manner. The fact the first bank in Italy chose our platform to enter the crowdfunding market is undoubtedly an element of strong confidence for investors, both professional and retail, and for companies.

In addition to this, we have already opened several working groups with people belonging to the Intesa Sanpaolo ecosystem. This will allow us, in the coming months, to launch new solutions on the market, dedicated both to companies looking for capital and investors interested in including in their portfolio alternative investments.

What kind of crowdfunding projects do you think are most appreciated by the “real crowd” today?

An investor who chooses to use a crowdfunding platform to invest in a specific asset class – the risk capital of small businesses – does so with very different motivations and objectives, whether the investment target is a startup, a consolidated SME or a real estate project. What we are observing is that investors, both professional and retail, thanks to the investments’ offer on our platform, are increasingly diversifying their investments from a portfolio perspective.

This is an encouraging sign because it shows the market is maturing. In order to meet this need, we believe that a wide and diversified range of investments is needed, depending on the sector and stage of development of the companies. That is what investors expect. Any project that is well structured, with a complete and prepared team of proposers that makes it clear what can be the opportunities for return on investment, can certainly find the support of investors.

What will you do in the coming months?

In the next six months, we will definitely start to ground all the work set up with our new partner Intesa Sanpaolo and I can guarantee we will see some extraordinary outcomes! Stay tuned!

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