Banca Generali takes stake in FinTech Conio

By Robin Amlot

Italy’s Banca Generali has entered into a corporate and commercial partnership with Conio Inc., a FinTech company operating in cryptocurrency. As a wallet provider Conio offers custody, negotiation and reporting services currently focusing on Bitcoin. Under the partnership agreement, Banca Generali will acquire a stake in Conio Inc. to support the company’s growth and the distribution of its products as part of the Banca Generali’s range of digital services offered to its customers.

Banca Generali acted as main investor in Conio’s new funding round for a total amount of $14 million. The bank’s Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Gian Maria Mossa said: “This is an important industrial partnership both from a technological as well as a management perspective. We predict that the future structure of financial markets will be influenced by blockchain technology, which continues to enable innovation in cryptocurrencies and many other areas of the financial ecosystem… the agreement with Conio means an expansion of the services offered to our customers and collaborating with an innovation-oriented partner. We can thus continue to develop our open-banking platform expanding our offering with industry leading innovative solutions.”

Conio’s wallet includes a digital currency custody system with multiple signatures (with three security keys), which may be extended to further digital currencies in the future. The firm was founded in 2015 in San Francisco (USA) by Christian Miccoli, formerly of CheBanca!, ING Direct, and McKinsey, and Vincenzo di Nicola who brings experience from Microsoft and Stanford University, and founder of GoPago, technology purchased by Amazon), who act as co-CEOs of the company. Conio Inc. currently serves over 150,000 cryptocurrency portfolios for Italian customers.

Christian Miccoli, co-CEO of Conio Inc., said : “This agreement with Banca Generali is a significant step towards a new era for the whole financial system with more traditional financial institutions opening the way for collaboration between the established and the new players. After 10 years of development and industrial stabilisation, cryptocurrencies are now entering into a tangible new phase, debuting on the financial institutions’ range of services. With this transaction, Banca Generali is positioning Italy as a leading country in Europe in the race towards the development of these new technologies.”