Andrea Birolo serves as head of corporate venture capital (CVC) for Italy-based insurance firm Reale Group’s strategic investment arm, Reale Group Corporate Venturing.
Formed in 2018, the unit is under Reale Group’s digital and innovation division whose aim is to identify disruptive technology developers in Italy and elsewhere in a bid to create industrial synergies within the group’s companies and helping them with their growth process and business development.
Tommaso Lemessi, co-founder of roadside assistance service Charlie24, said: “I would like to thank Reale Group Corporate Venturing for choosing to invest in Charlie24. We are working together in order to create vertical and horizontal synergies, and always find efficient solutions in the best interests of the project. As a startup, we focus on bringing digital efficiency to the processes and Reale Group Corporate Venturing has always provided us with its support in all possible scopes, thus rendering this Joint Venture even more engaging and exciting.”
Giacomo De Lorenzo, co-founder of Moneymour, a consumer point-of-sale loan provider which was acquired by e-commerce payment provider Klarna in February 2020, added: “We were aware that the key to start our business consisted in the right partner bank to help us implementing our project. We talked with many banks and, at last, we met Reale Group Corporate Venturing. They immediately expressed a strong interest that has materialized into a strategic operation: capital investments and, after a period of coaching, support in the market launch of the business.”
Maurizio Campia, co-founder of pharmacy product delivery service Pharmercure, also said: “Reale Group Corporate Venturing believed in Pharmercure since it was only a project and followed us until we became a growing company, supporting us not only from a financial point of view but also with skills, contacts and business opportunities. Reale Group has found in Pharmercure a strong affinity with its business and has decided to invest in order to pursue its goal of constantly innovating: for this reason, we believe it has been the ideal investor for us.”
Regarding what corporations can do to make the CVC industry stronger, Birolo advised: “From the Italian point of view, it could be important to strengthen the relationship with your own top management and create a strong ecosystem among CVC players.”
Prior to joining Reale Group Corporate Venturing in 2017, Brolo had worked at Blue Assistance, a subsidiary of Reale Group that focuses on health insurance, for six and a half years. He was a sales business development manager for two years from 2011 before being appointed head of sales, assistance and services, a role he held until he joined the CVC unit.
Birolo holds a business administration and economics degree from University of Turin, after which he also studied for a European executive MBA from ESCP Business School.
