Mirta, the e-Commerce platform dedicated to the artisans of “Made in Italy”, won the first prize of the Women & Sustainability Innovation Cup, presented by Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), leader in the Italian seed venture capital, in partnership with Mastercard.
In the frame of Connext2021, the national meeting of industrial partnership of Confindustria, the awards event of the first edition of the Women & Sustainability Innovation Cup was held. During the event, the winning startup was elected in the presence of Mastercard's top management, including Country Manager Italy Michele Centemero, and Carlo Tassi, President of Italian Angels for Growth.
Context2021 is dedicated to the comparison between all the important actors of the economic world, focusing on the strength of the network to support in a concrete way the companies to manage and lead the change.
Mirta was born in 2019 from the idea of Martina Capriotti and Ciro Di Lanno. Thanks to the technology applied to the two B2C and B2B digital platforms, Mirta creates a virtual connection between the artisan and the end customer or boutique, making the buying experience increasingly complete and rewarding and thus enhancing the human connection.
The project stood out for its strong ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) component and the predominantly female entrepreneurial team, two founding values of the competition itself.
Mastercard will provide the winning startup the valuable opportunity to access and benefit from the expertise of the multinational company through dedicated meetings that will alternate between mentoring to discussions on partnerships and potential business synergies, with the aim of supporting the growth and help realize its potential.
Many applications were received in the first edition of the competition. Among the other projects that made it to the finals that stood out for giving greater prominence to sustainable and responsible investments and for supporting female entrepreneurship are:
- Doorway, the Consob-authorized online investment platform that allows smart and safe investing in validated startups and SMEs. Doorway presents a highly selected number of startups and SMEs with high scalability and sustainable business models, selected based on an accurate due diligence analysis on team, business model, financial, legal and exit strategy, developed by a team of internal experts and external consultants. Also, on the investor side of the Doorway platform there is 14% of female investors.
- Fea Money, founded in February 2021 by Angelyne Lacher, is a new bank for women with a focus on financial education. Unlike traditional banks, and other neo-banks in the market, Fea Money wants to offer relevant financial services and products that meet the needs of the female target audience starting with the Swiss market.
- GHOSTWRITER AI, Innovative SME founded in 2014 by Ester Liquori and Mauro Bennici, which transforms conversations into value through Artificial Intelligence. GHOSTWRITER AI helps companies understand their audience and seize new opportunities with scalable and predictable trends thanks to the enrichment of data drawn from the analysis of company/customer conversations to attract more leads, increase retention and sales.
- My-Money, founded in early 2017 by Mara Vendramin, has patented a biometric and device-free payment system for use in stores through smart pos.
"We are very happy with the success of this first edition of the Women & Sustainability Innovation Cup, presented by IAG in partnership with Mastercard. Several projects of great value that have applied and that testify how innovation never stops. This award represents a prestigious showcase, behind which there is our mission: to facilitate the investment of private capital in the ecosystem of Italian and international startups, becoming the meeting point between entrepreneurs, investors and companies. The synergy with a company like Mastercard proves to be essential to design a virtuous ecosystem for the country" - said Carlo Tassi, President of Italian Angels for Growth.
"As Mastercard we are proud to be part of this initiative, desired with IAG, which rests its foundations on two values and objectives that have always distinguished us: inclusion and diversity, convinced of the importance of offering equal opportunities for the birth and development of talent. In this, startups represent an inexhaustible source of innovation and it is a great honor for us to be able to support, through the sharing of our skills, promising realities, such as Mirta and the many startups candidates, who have shown to have at heart the development of a better, fairer and more sustainable society" - said Michele Centemero, Country Manager Italy of Mastercard.