Loans for students to finance their course of study are not very common in Italy. This is why we need someone who can mediate between the world of credit, schools and families. Habacus was born from this need, a startup active in the social impact fintech market that obtained an investment of 300 thousand euros from Liftt, the Venture Capital chaired by the scientist-entrepreneur Stefano Buono who thus consolidates its presence in the world of Education.
Habacus ‘idea is to act as an interlocutor between credit institutions and the school, guiding the students’ path and facilitating access to student loans thanks to the certification of academic performance and training credits, through a proprietary platform. The investment will be focused on the development of the IT and commercial areas. “The startup is in fact a first mover in a world, that of training loans, which in Italy is light years away from European standards” underlines a note from Liftt.
In general, a university course translates into an outlay, borne by families, from 34 to 45 thousand euros for a three-year period in public universities, figures that go up a lot if private structures are chosen, a situation that creates social discrepancies in the phase of access to post-diploma training and contributes negatively to the low percentage of graduates among young Italians.
Founded in 2017 by CEO Paolo Cuniberti, with thirty years of experience in the financial sector, Habacus first of all provides guidance to young people who require certification, and then works on finding funds, credit instruments or scholarships. The company has partnerships with over 900 training institutions, banks and companies, with more than 20 thousand students already certified to access the services provided by the platform.
Liftt thus becomes the startup’s first institutional investor. «We strongly believe and support this initiative – underlines the CEO of the Venture Giovanni Tesoriere – which is totally in line with Liftt’s vision of building a strong interaction between the world of research and training and the real economy. Habacus makes training loans and high-level training accessible and sustainable, creating an “ecosystem of knowledge” unprecedented in Italy that involves all strategic stakeholders for the growth of the country-system, and represents a fundamental lever for guaranteeing the future of our Country through the best possible enablers, young people ».