How Crédit Agricole innovation philosophy was adapted to the Italian culture by a female CEO. She is concerned with innovation, ecology, women empowerment and philanthropy
Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano
Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano is the first innovation hub opened in Italy by the French banking group. Located in a former fifteenth century cloister in the heart of Milan, it is a multi-functional space. It now counts fifty-six start-ups, thirty-two partners and fifty-six enablers. Based on the concept of «cooperate to innovate», this two-thousand-seven-hundred square meters village offers both co-working spaces and individual offices, for a total of two hundred two workstations.
In 2014 Crédit Agricole decided to invest in innovation and, taking advantage of a newly acquired one million-square-foot building in the center of Paris, former headquarters of Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, opened its first village. The idea was to create «an innovation ecosystem» for start-ups willing to grow and at the same time capable of promoting the development of the village itself. Today, Crédit Agricole has forty-three innovation hubs all over Europe.
When in 2017 Crédit Agricole came up with the idea of opening a village in Italy, Milan was chosen. The city boasted at the time more than fifteen percent of all Italian start-ups. A year later, in 2018, Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano was inaugurated. It became the second largest hub after Paris.
Le Village putting together local and international
In the Middle Ages, villages were self-sufficient ecosystems. Crédit Agricole applied this same concept to its innovation hubs, all of which are «rooted in the territory». They aim at promoting an acceleration and an innovation of local companies. Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano deals with all the pillars of the Italian economy – design, food, and fashion. They cooperates with the Municipality of Milan.
However, Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano also has an international soul. It is open to trends and ideas from abroad, but tries to adapt them to the Italian territory and culture. Even though inspired to the original French concept, Milan innovation hub has its own DNA. It focuses on events, networking, «the creation of a physical link between the various innovation subjects». Every start-up based in Milan can go to any other Crédit Agricole village for free, aided by a dedicated office. In the same way, partners of the Italian hub can meet foreign start-ups.
The CEOs of the villages are constantly in touch and reunite every other month in order to share experiences, projects and ideas.
The mayor Gabriella Scapicchio
Gabriella Scapicchio is the CEO of Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano. She however prefers to be called «sindaco», mayor in Italian. Along these lines, the team and the start-uppers are called inhabitants.
With a degree in Economics and a master in Marketing and Communication, Gabriella has been marketing manager of different companies. After fifteen years as marketing manager of Agos, BU of Crédit Agricole, she decided to follow her passion for financial innovation. The subject was new to her.
In 2015, Gabriella left her job and her team and went back to study. «At the time, I used to introduce myself to people as an innovation intern». Her choice was influenced by her visit to the Paris newborn village in October 2014, a day she still remembers. «Even though it was still work in progress, I felt a desire to work in a place like that».
Gabriella believes in the law of attraction and three years later, in 2017, was appointed CEO of Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano. She opened it in seven months, convinced that «with each passing month you lose competitive advantage».
For Gabriella innovation is a journey: «I love to travel and when I do, I always look for something innovative». She is also passionate for diving, a sport that, according to her, helped her during the pandemic. In 2020, Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano was forced to close after one year of activity, but managed to survive and reinvent itself after the lockdown: «Diving taught me to be resilient».
Just like a mayor, in Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano Gabriella interacts with her team, the institutions, the Crédit Agricole group, start-ups and companies.
How to become a Le Village start-up
The start-ups that are part of the village and belong to different sectors. «We have ten defined sectors, but thirty percent of start-ups that do not belong to any of those». The sectors are not fixed and change according to the incoming trends.
To become part of Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano, start-ups «have to be ready to market, able to work with medium and big companies. Start-ups too early-stage cannot be accepted because the hub’s aim is to create a network». Gabriella describes the ideal start-up for the village as having «an idea, a marketed product, a minimum turnover and a consolidated team of at least two people». Both start-ups and partner companies are required to be sustainable, which means « to provide added value to the outer world, intended both as environment and as society».
Innov’ability: a prize for start-ups and companies
«2021 was a challenging year for us. From June to December, we had to rebuild from scratch everything that we lost because of the pandemic. It destroyed the majority of what we – as a newborn reality – had just finished building. During those six months we managed to bring back to the village start-ups and partner companies, to organize in-person events and to go back travelling abroad in order to study foreign innovation hubs. In the end, we broke even».
Since innovation runs fast and the world itself came out different from the pandemic, during the last year Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano also changed some of its initial verticals and its approach, which now focuses on the service: «The pandemic made it vital for us to be able to provide a service in spite of the distance. This became our best practice».
To celebrate its fourth year of activity, Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano established the Innov’ability Awards. It is a prize for start-ups and companies engaged in innovative and sustainable projects. The Awards were divided in two categories – environmental and social. They were presented on the eighteenth of July 2022, during the homonymous event. «We already held a smaller Innov’ability in 2019. This time the event represented the first step towards our next project: The sustainability manifesto».
From September 2022, Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano, together with its start-ups, is going to draw up a set of rules for a sustainable approach to innovation. The sustainability manifesto is to play a part in another future plan of the village: becoming a certified benefit corporation.
The value of women empowerment
For Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano and its mayor, sustainability does not stand just for ecology, but for a equal society. One of their goals is female empowerment: «Women still today have to endure all sorts of labels. There is still a long way to go in terms of gender equality, in Italy we are a bit behind».
In Italy one in four women holds an executive position in a company. One in five women does so in a start-up. «In start-ups the gap between men and women is even larger than in traditional companies». According to Ms. Scapicchio, the reasons for that are both cultural and educational. «Women studying STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – are half the men and are generally less likely to take risks».
In her opinion, this gap does not reflect a natural inclination. It is the result of a cultural heritage of the past, according to which scientific matters would be a man’s thing. Personally engaged in mentorship programs, Gabriella encourages young women of present generations to challenge themselves more and those of the future ones to study scientific and technical disciplines.
Innov’Art: a ‘partnership’ between Le Village and cryptocurrency
Women and children have been at the center of the social commitment of Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano. An example is Innov’Art, a fundraising event organized in 2021 to support the project Palla al centro, for the reeducation and the social, academic and work reintegration of minors with criminal records. Money was raised through the sale of NFTs, tokens of works of art.
According to Ms. Scapicchio, NFTs have potential, because, being linked to something as tangible as art, made it easier for many people to approach the crypto world. Moreover, the NFTs sold during Innov’Art were created on the Algorand Blockchain, which has zero environmental impact, since it is carbon negative. The partnership between Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano and cryptocurrency dates back to 2019, when the innovation hub became home to the first Italian district dedicated to the Blockchain. Realized in cooperation with ICONIUM Blockchain Ventures, it aims at developing this technology both in Italy and abroad.
Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano
Corso di Porta Romana, 61, 20122 Milano MI
Based on the concept of «cooperate to innovate», Le Village by Crédit Agricole Milano is the first innovation hub opened in Italy by the French banking group. It is located in Milan city center. It is in a multi-functional space that today counts fifty-six start-ups, thirty-two partners and fifty-six enablers.
