Flowe, the benefit corporation of Mediolanum Group, an emerging Italian e-money institution that aims to educate young people on innovation and economic, social and environmental sustainability, chooses SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in the payment services and infrastructures sector controlled by CDP Equity, as its partner to support the offer of innovative digital services in the areas of e-money, payments, current accounts, loans and savings management.

These services can be accessed via smartphone through the Flowe App, available on Apple Store and Google Play Store, which allows users to activate a payment account - in fully digital mode - to which the Flowe virtual debit card, recently launched in Italy, is associated. SIA's technology infrastructure, integrated with Flowe's cloud services, manages the entire life cycle of the card, from the issuing request and virtualization to the top-up of the payment account, and from online customization of features to transaction processing, up to the prevention and management of frauds and disputes.

As part of the partnership, in addition to supporting Flowe in its activities for compliance with the regulations required to operate as an Electronic Currency Institution, SIA has also provided access via smartphone to payment services (bank transfers, postal payment slips, etc.) and other applications such as, for example, telephone top-ups.

The Flowe card can be used to make purchases on e-commerce sites and in shops via smartphone and is also available, at the customer's request, in a wood version. This is an absolute innovation, since the Flowe card - created by SIA in its specialized center in Verona in collaboration with Exceet - provides for the use of environmentally sustainable materials while guaranteeing customers the full functionality of payment services, both in traditional and contactless mode, through the Mastercard circuit.

Cherry wood from sustainably managed forests is used to create these innovative cards, which makes each one of them different from any other and conveys a unique visual and tactile quality. The card is the physical element of the Flowe world, part of a BetterBeing plat-firm, an ecosystem focusing on personal and collective improvement.

"Flowe is a payment app that looks at the future and focuses on the younger generations, those who have lived digitally from birth and are resistant to the idea of using traditional credit institutions. The Flowe card responds to these new needs: experience of use and speed of transfer. We have gone beyond payment services alone and wanted to build a different and more evolved product which, to the features of simplicity and speed, would also add sustainability, an important aspect for new generations. For every wooden card sold, we will plant a tree. And not only that, the social behavior and the purchases made will be read from a carbon footprint viewpoint and Flowe has a function that offers the possibility to offset it by planting trees", stated Ivan Mazzoleni, Cultural Energy Orchestrator and CEO of Flowe.

"We are proud to have supported the launch of Mediolanum's strategic initiative Flowe, which shows how Italy is progressively accelerating towards becoming a cashless society and possesses all the skills and digital infrastructures to be able to assert itself on the European market, where several fintechs are already active. The partnership with Flowe strengthens the collaboration with Mediolanum Group and confirms SIA's ability to accompany the digital transformation of financial institutions, corporates and public sector organizations through the development of innovative services such as digital onboarding and e-commerce, thus increasingly encouraging the adoption of electronic payments with particular attention to the environmental aspects", commented Nicola Cordone, CEO of SIA.