Impact Innovation is an award for startups of technological innovation with a strong social impact, put up for grabs by Unicredit Start Lab in collaboration with Fondazione Triulza. In recent months, committees have selected 10 finalists from hundreds of applicants and guess what? There is also Nazena!
We believe that innovation is the key to getting out of the mess we are in by creating something that really changes our unsustainable social structure.
In our case, we’ve had enough of a wasteful industry and we’re here to prove that we can think, and act, differently. Our solution, you already know it, is to make the textile industry sustainable through a tested (and patented!) system based on recycling and resource conservation. And it’s a solution that Unicredit and Fondazione Triulza have understood and rewarded. How? By including us among the 10 startups that will benefit from important opportunities. Which ones? We’ll tell you right away.
The Unicredit Start Lab acceleration program
The support actions included in the acceleration program that Nazena will take part in for the next 12 months are, in detail:
- mentoring: a targeted assignment of mentors from among innovation and business experts and professionals
- training: annual Startup Academy to develop tailor-made training content and compare notes with other selected startups
- connections: access to Unicredit international network and presentation days to industrial and technology counterparts, potential investors, other startups in the community and the entire innovation ecosystem including accelerators, incubators, science and technology parks, experts and universities
- one-to-one meetings with the Unicredit Start Lab evaluation team to discuss the project, highlighting its strengths and areas for improvement
- banking services: financial products and solutions designed specifically for the selected startups.
But where exactly does this award come from? As we were saying, it is the result of the collaboration between Unicredit Start Lab and Fondazione Triulza, which have come together for a noble cause. But what do they do and how did their fruitful encounter come about?
Impact innovation: Unicredit Start Lab and Fondazione Triulza accelerate social innovation
Unicredit Start Lab is the Unicredit initiative created to support young entrepreneurs, innovation and new technologies. It consists mainly of the acceleration program we have just told you about, which is aimed at innovative startups in any field, and a business platform by which Unicredit supports the growth of startups considered to have high potential. For this year’s ninth edition of the initiative, Unicredit has decided to introduce a vertical segment dedicated to innovative and technological projects but with a high social impact: the Impact Innovation category, which could also take shape thanks to the participation of the Fondazione Triulza. The network of 71 organizations working in various areas of civil society and the third sector was set up in the context of Milan Expo 2015 with the mission of fostering dialogue and meeting between peoples, sustainable economy, ethical finance and responsible consumption. As the only organization that remained active after Expo 2015 ended, the Foundation operates within the MIND – Milano Innovation District ecosystem and one of its objectives is to support businesses and realities that work to bring social benefits to the community. With Impact Innovation, therefore, the Foundation strengthens its activities in this direction.
We are always very happy to find initiatives in favor of social and sustainable innovation, we are happy with the support we meet and with the new doors that open to us to develop and expand our project. But above all we are happy that we are not alone in fighting this battle, so thank you Unicredit Start Lab and Fondazione Triulza and congratulations to all the other finalist startups!
Want to know who they are? Have a look here!
