After the excellent results of the last edition, the new edition of Women & Sustainability Innovation Cup starts today, Tuesday 4 October, the initiative aimed at identifying and rewarding the most promising innovative realities in the fintech field, with female-dominated entrepreneurial teams and a strong ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) component, who work on cutting-edge solutions for the future of payments with a strong focus in the most emerging areas, from blockchain to metaverse to cybersecurity and who are thinking of innovative solutions in the area of e-commerce.
The startup ecosystem represents an essential source of innovation for companies. For this reason, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), a leading player in Italian seed venture capital and in the support of Open Innovation corporate programs, and Mastercard, an international technology company and leader in payment services, have decided to renew their collaboration to continue to enhance this promising and dynamic ecosystem.
“In its 15 years of activity as a leader of the Italian seed venture capital, IAG has always supported entrepreneurial teams with innovative and concrete projects, with particular attention to the topic of diversity and gender equality. We are therefore delighted to be able to contribute again to this initiative with our innovation services for large companies such as Mastercard, enabling them to monitor the development of new technologies and business models, and facilitating collaboration between market leaders and small innovative companies. We believe that greater diversity within the entrepreneurial teams and the integration between these realities represent a strategic advantage for innovative projects of value", says Carlo Tassi, President of Italian Angels for Growth.
The great value and socio-economic contribution of female-led startups is also shown by the latest evidence that analyzes entrepreneurship in Italy. According to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), although there is still a long way to go in our country, there are several positive signs for women who want to be entrepreneurs. It is positively striking how the percentage of women currently employed in the tech sector (46%) is not very far from that of men (54%), further confirming the validity of national and local policies aimed at improving professional skills and increasing participation of women in the technology sector. It is in this challenging context that Mastercard has indeed set itself the ambitious goal of including 50 million SMEs and 25 million women entrepreneurs in the digital economy by 2025.
"At Mastercard we are thrilled to renew the collaboration alongside IAG in the launch of this initiative, which perfectly embodies the values of inclusion and diversity that we have always promoted but also the attention to fintech companies working on emerging payments in frontier areas such as cybersecurity, the metaverse and the evolution of e-commerce”, says Michele Centemero, Country Manager Italy of Mastercard. "With such initiatives we want to support and promote emerging startups, making our global network, contacts with our customers and partners and our solutions available to them so that these companies can succeed".
To participate in the new edition of the competition, startups with one or more women in top management roles must register their projects, including a partnership proposal with Mastercard, by Friday the 4th of December. The projects will be evaluated by an audience of experts in the field of digital payments and venture capital according to established criteria, with a particular focus on solutions that add value in the ESG field. Among these, 10 startups will be selected and will have the precious opportunity to access and benefit from the skills of Mastercard's C-levels in dedicated meetings, alternating moments of mentoring with discussions on collaborations and potential business synergies. Subsequently, five finalist teams will be selected and the winner will be announced during the final of the competition to be held in hybrid form in early December.
All startups wishing to apply for the initiative can send their membership here
The last edition of the competition involved over 70 startups: the 10 selected projects had the opportunity to meet the Mastercard representatives and the 5 finalists presented their idea during the awards event, held in the context of Connext2021, the annual national meeting of industrial partnership of Confindustria, dedicated to creating connections between all the major players in the economic world, focusing on the strength of the network to concretely support companies in managing and guiding change. During the event, Mirta, an e-commerce platform that promotes Made in Italy artisans by making their products known abroad, was elected winner.