Wavenure has been selected as part of the Global Startup Program launched by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and managed by ICE, which have identified a hundred or so emerging and innovative Italian startups and has supported them on a project of scale up and internationalisation. Giulio Massucci, founder of this fintech, tells the experience.

“We at Wavenure had the opportunity to participate in the acceleration programme in London, as we had selected the UK as a target country linked to our activity. The UK was already a very interesting market for us, both for its size and deep knowledge in the field of asset management and for its strong ecosystem in artificial intelligence” tells Massucci.

The accelerator that guided us was Startupbootcamp, one of the biggest fintech, insurtech and cybersecurity accelerators in the world. It’s clear that joining their ecosystem has allowed Wavenure to face the challenges and has given its team the tools to successfully face and win them. “The opportunity has been very interesting both for the contacts with potential investors that we are currently evaluating and for the development of a series of business relationships aimed at UK financial players and asset management companies with which we started to sign partnerships to apply our system of Artificial Intelligence and more specifically our AI investment coach Braino to the management of investment funds”.

The first edition of the GSP started in mid-July and ended in mid-October. “It was a pleasure for us to spend the summer months in a stimulating city like London. The experience we had was that of a sort of extremely guided study holiday aimed at vertical excellence in the field of fintech – explains Massucci – Clearly, the startups that lived the London experience with us had a different core business from fintech (medtech, circular economy, etc.) but the fact of representing the future of Italian startups in terms of innovation allowed us to verticalize the training and growth path. One of the things that has made the difference is the climate of cooperation and sharing that has been created with other startups. Both in terms of the training part and in terms of field experimentation, techniques and experiences gained by other companies. We believe that this path of sharing is also important to address the approach of growth, internationalization, team development and the skills needed to compete”.

Evaluating the experience Massucci tells that “This initiative gave us a broader view of what the opportunities are and how best to implement them and above all are already producing the first results. What we are working on is the launch of new product lines aimed at investors, not to mention all the events in which Wavenure will take part and all the new partnerships that have been created in recent weeks. We bring home a great deal of organisational wealth, know-how and a culture of doing business that has matured internationally and a plan for representation and expansion in the UK which, whether Brexit or not, remains one of the most interesting markets in the field of financial services and in asset management in particular”.

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modefinance is a fintech rating agency that assesses the credit risk of companies at an international level. It owns the license issued by ESMA and operates in an innovative way trying to be faster and more effective than its competitors.

modefinance started out with a 100% foreign turnover and then turned back trying to expand its presence in Italy. “Without any doubt, 2019 will see us involved in a very intense process of internationalization,” explains its founder Mattia Ciprian and the company has already started making its first moves.

modefinance was in fact among the fintech companies the Department of International Trade (DIT) selected in various countries (Israel, Belgium, Poland, Spain, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Italy and others) to participate in the International FinTech Mission to the UK’s Northern Powerhouse, coordinated by DIT, Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Whitecap Consulting.

Let’s find out more in this interview with Mattia Ciprian and Alberto Gerin

What was your goal for the UK?

To get to know the Northern Powerhouse (Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds) and let us know about the companies and financial institutions of that area. The objective of the mission was to bring Fintechs to the territory and develop the possibility of their landing in the UK (extra London)

What opportunities did this initiative offer you?

That of getting to know the strength of the Northern Powerhouse, the presence and the actual choice of many financial institutions to settle out of London, yet in the centre of the UK, and of the innumerable possibilities of expansion and collaboration the Anglo-Saxon market offers. We have made some very interesting contacts both with universities and with other Fintechs similar to ours.

What was the format like?

The format was structured over three days. The first evening, at the introductory meeting, we were able to get to know all the other European Fintechs invited, in a very informal way. During the following three days there were presentations of companies, institutions and scientific-technological centres of excellence in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds and the pitches of us Fintech. In this way, we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the British ecosystem and gather feedback and opportunities.

What are the pros and cons of entering the UK market for an Italian fintech?

Entering a structured market like the British one (both for financial institutions and for the innovative Fintech base) is a possibility that we are actually potentially evaluating together with a direct commercial chain and a customer support office. The obvious concern that torments anyone who is doing this same kind of assessment is regarding Brexit, and of the effects that this potential decision will have on both sides of the British domestic and European markets.

How can the Fintech District and other fintech hubs facilitate this step?

Fintech District is a community able to connect companies and projects, and to facilitate the exchange and personal interaction between supply and demand, even before being a platform in which to bring together the Italian realities of Fintech. The next step which aims to make this exchange of products, ideas and people even better, consists precisely in the widening of connections at a European and global level, uniting communities of the different countries with events spread over the territory and thus making the dialogue easier and faster.

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