Fondazione CR Firenze and Intesa Sanpaolo launch 60 million SME fund

A 60 million euro fund to help local businesses in the areas of artistic crafts, tourism, culture, as well as lifestyle, fashion and agribusiness, with a focus on start-ups. This, in a nutshell, is the Renaissance Florence civil economy project launched by Fondazione CR Firenze together with Intesa Sanpaolo. The aim is to give oxygen to the backbone of our economy in this extremely difficult phase, namely the many small businesses that represent the best identity of our territory. The project was presented last week in Florence, at Teatro Niccolini, by the president of Fondazione CR Firenze, Luigi Salvadori, and the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, Carlo Messina, via streaming link.

Rinascimento Firenze will benefit from the strategic collaboration of three implementing entities (Associazione Osservatorio dei Mestieri d’Arte, OMA; Centro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana; and Fondazione Ricerca e Innovazione), which conceived the entire process together with Fondazione CR Firenze and Intesa Sanpaolo. The operational activity will be ensured by the KON Foundation structure, and Institutional Partners are the Florence Chamber of Commerce and the Florence Prefecture. Beneficiaries of the project must be small and micro enterprises, including those in the cooperative and mutual sector, capable of presenting a project that has a measurable social impact (i.e., they must be able to stabilize or increase staff, train them while investing in new technologies, make investments in the area of new health regulations, and encourage forms of aggregation between competing operators to increase the resilience of the aggregation). Companies that are selected will be asked to inject fresh capital resources into their initiatives for a total amount of at least 5 million euros, equal to 50 percent of the amount made available to implementers by Fondazione CR Firenze. The foundation will disburse resources of up to 10 million euros, taken from the Strategic Projects Fund that was established years ago and was increased last year by another 5 million euros. In turn, Intesa Sanpaolo will disburse up to 50 million euros of Impact Loans, an innovative financial instrument with long maturities and favorable terms, to the selected entities: fixed 0.4 percent rate, 5-year grace period, 10-year term.

“We have worked out a modality,” stressed Fondazione CR Firenze President Luigi Salvadori, “that allows for a rapid and effective allocation and distribution of resources to help so many typically Florentine realities overcome this very difficult phase. I thank the three implementing entities (OMA Association, Florence Center for Italian Fashion and Research and Innovation Foundation) for their decisive contribution. We want to stimulate new and renewed functions, encourage the preservation of jobs, and give a signal of confidence and closeness to those entrepreneurs and businesses, including those in the nonprofit sector, who ’feel like doing’. Indeed, they are also asked to invest in their initiatives to show that we all have the desire to start again together. We want to stimulate an ’economic and social renaissance’ that testifies to our belief in the possibility of revitalizing the area. It is also a path that uses valuable synergies with other entities in a network logic, and we are particularly proud of this.”

“Today we are faced with the opportunity to rethink a model of action in which the Foundation, Bank and Associative Entities, together, contribute to give new life and resources to the thousands of micro and small businesses that make up the economic fabric of this territory,” says Carlo Messina, CEO and Managing Director of Intesa Sanpaolo. “The shared goal is to encourage the realization of an overall social benefit for the area by financing the projects of the businesses that animate this city and provide jobs for thousands of families, as well as keeping vital a unique and unmissable know-how and distinctive culture. As in Bergamo, with ’Rinascimento Firenze’ we want to support the restart of the city’s economy through impact lending, a new credit instrument in the banking scene, including at the international level, dedicated in particular to activities with the greatest social impact for the business ecosystem. Thanks to ’Renaissance Florence’ we have a new opportunity to be at the service of citizens, the associative and university world, professional orders and businesses in Florence chestanno dedicating energy and daily passion to the ’rebirth’ of this territory. This project can therefore represent, in conclusion, a great opportunity. The partnership with the Foundation and the use of innovative tools on the credit front can contribute to the rethinking of forms of intervention and, where possible, encourage a substantial paradigm shift in doing business, which includes a strong innovative component and positive spin-offs for the community and the environment.”

Fondazione CR Firenze and Intesa Sanpaolo launch 60 million SME fund

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