In January 2018 Roberto Nicastro and Federico Sforza shared their first coffee together, while in June of the same year they started to conceive a project: Banca AideXa, a digital bank for Italian entrepreneurs.
The team of co-founders rapidly widened until they became 10. But who are the founders Nicastro and Sforza?
Roberto Nicastro - Chairman
Roberto Nicastro, born in 1964, Chairman of Banca AideXa, is an angel investor in a dozen hi-tech and fintech start-up initiatives. He’s also the European advisor for Cerberus Capital, and he chairs Officine CST on its behalf.
In 2019-2020 he was Vice Chairman of UBI Banca. In 2015-2017 he was Chairman of the four Good Banks (Chieti, Ferrara, Etruria, Marche) with the task of securing and selling them on behalf of the Bank of Italy's Resolution Fund, as part of the BRRD framework (first bail-in in Europe).
Before that, he worked for 18 years with the Unicredit group, where he entered in 1997 as Head of Planning until becoming General Manager in 2011. At Unicredit, among other things, he was responsible for setting up and leading the Central and Eastern Europe Division and the Retail Division.
In the past he was Chairman of the European Financial Marketing Association and Executive Vice Chairman of the ABI. Before that he worked with McKinsey & Co. and with Salomon Brothers in London.
Federico Sforza - CEO
Federico Sforza, 46, has over 20 years of experience in banking and fintech. He was Head of Self Banking & ATM at Nexi, Head of SMEs Business Unit at ING Italy and member of the board of directors of ING Direct Sicav.
At Unicredit he was Senior Vice President in charge of the multichannel function, with responsibilities that included the management and coordination of digital businesses (such as UniCredit Direct Contact Centre, advanced branches, online banking and so on).
From 2005 to 2010 he was responsible for multichannel management at Hypovereinsbank and Bank Austria (UniCredit Group) and Head of Strategic Projects at UniCredit. Previously, at McKinsey & Co., he was Senior Associate following strategic and organisational projects mainly for FIG clients.
He has a degree in Economics from the University of Bologna and an MBA from the University of California (UCLA).
Our investors, those who first believed in Banca AideXa’s vision
Banca AideXa has a sole shareholder, AideXa Holding S.p.A., whose investors are as follows:
4 main investors:
10% Generali
10% Banca Ifis
10% ISA
10% Banca Sella
Plus, there are 30 institutional investors, angel investors and family office with 40% and 10 co-founders with 20%:
Roberto Nicastro, Chairman
Federico Sforza, CEO
Elena Adorno, Chief Operating Officer
Emanuele Buttà, Chief Commercial Officer
Giovanni Beninati, Chief Risk & Lending Officer
Andrea Correale, Chief Financial Officer
Stefano Gallotti, Head of Enterprise Architecture
Alessio Marras, Chief Strategy Officer
Federico Provinciali, Head of Small Business Scoring Lab
A mix of fin- and tech skills: the company’s top management
The composition of the company's management reflects its objectives: a mix of skills originating from the financial world and the technological/digital universe.
Persons having operational positions in the company’s management include Elena Adorno (formerly with Societè Generale), Giovanni Beninati (formerly with American Express), Emanuele Buttà (formerly with Unicredit), Andrea Correale (formerly with Oliver Wyman), Stefano Gallotti (formerly with Avaloq), Alessio Marras (formerly with Deloitte), Federico Provinciali (formerly with Barclays).
The Board of Directors of Banca AideXa is composed as follows:
Roberto Nicastro, Chairman
Federico Sforza, CEO
Roberto Odierna, Executive Vice Chairman
Giuseppe Rumi, Non-Executive Vice Chairman
Elena Adorno, Director
Michele Andreaus, Director
Giovanni Beninati, Director
Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, Director
Doris Messina, Director
Matteo Renzulli, Director
Alessandra Stabilini, Director
If you want to learn more about AideXa, you can read this article about our solutions for SMBs or this one about open banking and big data at AideXa.