Intesa Sanpaolo takes aerospace SMEs to Silicon Valley

This mission forms part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s overall strategy to support the positioning of Italian industry abroad and, in particular, the activities of the Banca dei Territori division, led by Stefano Barrese, which are geared towards financing new initiatives and overseas branches of Italian SMEs, facilitating their engagement with foreign investors, and supporting the international development of high-tech sectors that are strategic for the growth of the Italian economy worldwide.

The Intesa Sanpaolo initiative was spearheaded by Stefano Barrese, head of Banca dei Territori, accompanied by Anna Roscio, executive director of corporate sales and marketing for the division, and Nicola Baiocchi di Silvestri, country manager for the US and the Americas at the IMI CIB division. Supported by Massimo Carnelos, the Italian Consul-General in San Francisco, and Filippo Fusaro, Director of the ITA’s Houston office, the mission was organised through the Italian innovation centre Innovit, headed by Alberto Acito, of which the ITA (Italian Trade Agency) and the IIC (Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco).

The new US mission therefore marks a further step towards the implementation of the strategy announced by Intesa Sanpaolo’s CEO, Carlo Messina, during the presentation of the 2026–2029 Business Plan, and is the result of the synergy between the group’s divisions and its global network of institutions and business communities.

The San Francisco mission also provided an opportunity to present a new project by Intesa Sanpaolo’s Banca dei Territori, the digital platform ‘Connecting Markets’, which uses artificial intelligence to help Italian SMEs connect with foreign partners, thanks to a wealth of information that enables the bank’s customers to access data on over 560 million companies across more than 2,000 product sectors in over 170 countries worldwide. Through this tool, developed in collaboration with Matchplat, and with Intesa Sanpaolo’s support in liaising with counterparties, corporate clients will be able to search for new industrial, commercial and supply chain partners, as well as target companies for acquisitions or collaborations, whilst also achieving greater diversification of the markets into which they enter and in which they develop their business. This represents further support for the growth of Italian SMEs, to which the banking group has already provided €12 billion since 2020 in the form of loans dedicated to internationalisation projects and export support.

A strategic sector due to its cross-cutting nature and its ability to draw on expertise from various production sectors and then channel it back into an equal number of industrial sectors, the aerospace sector has long been a focus of Intesa Sanpaolo’s initiatives; it is no coincidence that it was the first European commercial bank to join the ESA Investor Network. The group has, in fact, supported over 500 SMEs in the sector, providing them with financing totalling over €1 billion. Intesa Sanpaolo is also the only Italian bank – and the first in Europe – to have entered into a partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Space Agency (ESA): the agreement signed last July will mobilise €300 million in new funding for SME investments, thanks to European resources and dedicated guarantee instruments.

“We have always been the bank of choice for SMEs, and we are also the bank of choice for the aerospace sector, which originates in our local areas and industrial clusters to achieve challenging objectives, including in the United States and Silicon Valley – the cradle of innovation and numerous opportunities – as we have demonstrated over the years – says Stefano Barrese, head of the Regional Banking Division. – Our role is to work with them to identify new opportunities for growth abroad and to devise new tools to support them in industrial projects, partnerships with new investors, and in achieving not only economic but also cultural outcomes. Thanks to our innovative platform, the result of insights gathered here during previous missions, we will be able to offer global potential for the growth and competitiveness of our SMEs, to which we have provided over €141 billion in credit since 2020, of which €12 billion was for internationalisation and exports and €14 billion for extraordinary financing operations such as acquisitions, mergers and share capital increases’.

According to Consul Massimo Carnelos, “Working together as a network is essential for promoting Italian excellence in a strategic environment such as Silicon Valley. The collaboration between Intesa Sanpaolo and Innovit demonstrates the value of a shared commitment between organisations with complementary expertise, capable of supporting businesses as they navigate a highly competitive ecosystem and fostering new connections with strategic partners overseas.”

“The Space Economy has always been one of the technology sectors in which Innovit has chosen to invest, building expertise and relationships within the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Over the past few years, we have developed 48 programmes for innovative start-ups and SMEs, supporting nearly 500 companies and 1,000 entrepreneurs, with over 1,750 sessions and more than a thousand mentors and speakers. We are now in our third year of collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo: this continuity enables us to put this wealth of experience at the service of 12 aerospace SMEs, in a sector where the convergence of space, artificial intelligence, software and data is opening up new opportunities,” adds Innovit’s director, Alberto Acito.