Isra-Mart srl:Italian bank aims to find green gold with 'Dragon's Den'

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Isra-Mart srl news:

An Italian bank has this week stepped up efforts to break into the UK's clean tech sector with the launch of Dragons' Den-style initiative designed to help green start-ups meet potential investors.

After passing a series of stages organised by Italian finance house Intesa Sanpaolo and US investor network Maverick Angels, executives from nine clean tech companies yesterday attended an event at Intesa's London headquarters to pitch to an audience of venture capitalists and major energy firms.

Companies developing high-altitude wind energy-harnessing kites, new thin-film deposition techniques for solar PV, and IT platforms matching clean tech entrepreneurs with technical experts were among the firms selected from hundreds of applications.

Just under 30 were put forward for an "entrepreneur boot camp", which whittled down the number further to 12 companies and prepared them for a run-through pitch in Milan in September 2010.

Seven of those made it to yesterday's final round, along with two US companies which had come through a similar process run by Maverick Angels.

The initiative echoes similar schemes backed by the UK's Technology Strategy Board and Carbon Trust, and is designed to help promising start-ups access the finance required to develop new products and services.

Marcello Sala, deputy chairman of Intesa's management board, said that filling the role of bonding agent between start-ups and investors was helping the bank expand into new markets, adding that the company plans to replicate the model in Frankfurt, San Francisco and New York in the coming months.

Walter Ambrogi, head of international services at Intesa, said the service had the potential to benefit clean tech firms, investors and the bank. "There are three results we want. To help early-stage companies to attract capital; to help companies expand international networks... [and] ensure a return for investors," he said. "We want to try to internationalise this model."