Federico Sforza

Federico Sforza is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Banca AideXa, a Milan-based fintech bank that focuses on providing financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Italy. With over two decades of experience in the banking sector, Sforza has held significant positions at major financial institutions, including Nexi, Unicredit, and ING Italy, where he led the SMEs business unit.

Sforza's entrepreneurial journey began after he graduated in Economics and gained experience at McKinsey. He later pursued a Master's degree in the United States, where he launched his first startup. After returning to McKinsey and then moving into banking, he became involved in fintech initiatives, which ultimately led to the creation of AideXa. The bank has successfully provided over €500 million in loans to SMEs since its inception, leveraging open data to meet the specific needs of its clients during the COVID-19 pandemic.123

Under his leadership, AideXa has garnered significant attention in the fintech space, including a record €47 million seed funding round, which was the largest for an Italian fintech startup at the time.2 Sforza's vision for AideXa is to integrate credit and transactional services to better serve local entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of understanding local market needs in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.23