FinSec Innovation Lab: Where New Ideas Are Born

As the world moves increasingly towards the digitalization of essential  services and infrastructure — such as renewable energy grids and public lighting, office buildings and urban transportation systems, hospitals and residential complexes, online banking and smart payment circuits — demand is growing for powerful, intelligent protection systems to keep infrastructure safe and data private. This is where the FinSec Innovation Lab comes in, a joint venture between Enel X, financial services giant MasterCard and the Israeli government that launched last year, and has just opened for business. The Lab’s focus is on Fintech and cybersecurity technologies, and specifically on digital security, fintech platforms, digital authentication and financial inclusion, and it has issued a Call for Applications from candidates in the proof-of-concept stage.

At Enel X, we know that cutting-edge ideas are not always born in large organizations with established ways of doing things.

Breakthroughs can come from anywhere — and this is why we have made a point of building an open innovation ecosystem made up of start-ups and research centers, universities and clients in order to find the disruptive new ideas that will help propel us into the future.

Accordingly, Enel X works with state-of-the-art Innovation Hubs in some of the world’s most cutting-edge technological centers, where globally-renowned educational institutions turn out huge talent pools, and incubators rub shoulders with accelerators and venture capitalists.

As well as in Israel and Italy, these hubs are located in Boston, Madrid, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, and Santiago de Chile.

The main purpose of our innovation is to create a more sustainable future. This is a key part of our mission: we are deeply committed to the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular to ensuring affordable and clean energy for all (SDG7), creating resilient infrastructures (SDG9), developing innovative solutions for sustainable cities and communities (SDG11) and contributing to the fight against climate change (SDG13).

With our solutions based on the circular economy model, we unlock new opportunities to improve people’s lives in every area in which we are engaged: e-mobility, flexibility energy management, smart cities, efficient homes, optical fiber, and financial services.

Enel opened its first Innovation Hub in Tel Aviv in 2016. Since then, we have collaborated with start-ups in a variety of fields, including the Internet of Things, cybersecurity, energy storage and e-mobility. 

The FinSec Innovation Lab has a three-year license and is based in Israel’s southern city of Be’er Sheva — an R&D hub for technology companies, which the Israeli government has designated as a cyber and fintech capital.

 

It was established under the Innovation Labs Program of the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), which is backing it with some $4 million for the setting up the Lab infrastructure and develop PoC with Israeli startups. The investment comes after Enel X and MasterCard won a competitive tender in 2020.

FinSec Innovation Lab joins another Innovation Lab, INFRALAB, established by Enel in Israel in 2018. Infralab is  a Haifa-based innovation hub focusing on the digitalization of infrastructure businesses.

 

With the FinSec Innovation Lab now funded and operational, we can look forward to seeing it produce innovative and disruptive ideas that can be implemented globally, thanks to the reach of Enel X and MasterCard.