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Alessandro Gadotti

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Alessandro Gadotti
Born (1969-08-10) August 10, 1969 (age 55)
Alma materSapienza University of Rome
Known forFounder ZNAP Zwoop

Alessandro (Alex) Gadotti (born 10 August 1969 in Rome, Italy), entrepreneur, spent some years as APAC CEO of Powa Technologies. Powa, who had acquired ZNAP for US$75 million in May 2014[1] went into liquidation in February 2016.

Alessandro is known for its innovative approach to mobile payment.[2][3] and for his long experience in mobility and IT innovation. He has also filed five international patents in the mobile payment field.[4]

Biography

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Born in Rome, Italy and after a career in Ernst & Young where he became partner at 28, Alessandro Gadotti has been the director of one of the first Italian internet startups financed by the Fiat Group CiaoWeb.[5] Soon after he becomes a partner in Value Partners (Management Consulting) where he became CEO[6] for the South America system integrator startup of the group Value Team[7] later acquired in 2011 by NTT Data.[8]

Left Value Team in 2008 Alessandro became a serial entrepreneur in Hong Kong, where first started a flight simulator company called Flight Experience.[9][10] and later on a leading aviation consulting company called Aviation Results that provides services to set up Flight Simulator training centers (TRTOs) for airlines.

Alessandro then started up MPayMe a company focused in the mobile payment space, launching the innovative product ZNAP. After raising more than 22M USD to fund the start-up,[11][12] an unprecedented amount for any Hong Kong new tech startup, Alessandro sold the company to Powa Technologies in 2014 for US$75 million.[13][14] Powa Technologies went bankrupt in February 2016.

In 2012, Alessandro suffered from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer, for which he faced a year-long battle with chemotherapy in Hong Kong while full-time working for starting up MPayMe. Apparently, he is now cured with no relapses.

Alessandro has worked as chief executive for Asia Pacific in Powa Technologies that for some time has been one of the Internet Unicorn (finance) and the second most valued start-up in Europe [15] before entering in administration in February 2016.

Alessandro has then started Zwoop a new venture in the innovation of the e-commerce space, based in Hong Kong.

Other interests

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Alessandro Gadotti published a novel in Italy under the title Il Piano di Allah (The Allah Plan).[16]

Alessandro Gadotti is a fully licensed commercial pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight.

References

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  1. ^ Davies, Sally (12 June 2014). "Powa Tech buys MPayMe for $75m to corner mobile payments market". Financial Times.
  2. ^ "CNBC Interview How to attract consumer to mobile payments" (Video). CNBC. 23 June 2014.
  3. ^ "Mobile Money and Wallet Summit". Archived from the original on 2015-02-14. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  4. ^ "US Patent Office - Patent Summary". www.uspto.gov. United States Patent Office. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  5. ^ Sapegno, Pierangelo. "Il popolo del Web da l'assalto a CiaoWeb" (Newspaper) (in Italian). La Stampa. p. 13.
  6. ^ Fuoco, Tais (26 May 2006). "Com aquisições, consultoria Value Team multiplica negócios em TI no Brasil" (in Portuguese). Valor.
  7. ^ Ditolvo, Mariana (22 November 2006). "Papo com o gerente virtual" (in Portuguese). Istoe Dinheiro. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  8. ^ Alpeyev, Pavel (25 April 2011). "NTT Data to Buy Value Team to Expand in Emerging Markets". Bloomberg.
  9. ^ "Winging It". South China Morning Post.
  10. ^ Lu, Joy (21 October 2008). "Ready to Take Off". China Daily.
  11. ^ "Hong Kong's 20 Hottest Start-ups". Hong Kong Business Magazine. March 1, 2013.
  12. ^ Lam, Sheila (Jan–Feb 2014). "Industry Profile MPayMe" (PDF). Computerworld HK: 20. ISSN 1023-4934.
  13. ^ Perez, Bien (17 June 2014). "UK's Powa buys MPayMe for US$75m in mobile payment push". South China Morning Post.
  14. ^ Dunsby, Megan (17 June 2014). "Powa Technologies purchases Hong Kong tech start-up MPayMe for $75m". Startups.co.uk.
  15. ^ Phillips, Andrew Garcia. "The Billion-Dollar Startup Club". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  16. ^ Gadotti, Alessandro. Il Piano di Allah (in Italian) (first ed.). Albatros. ISBN 978-88-567-6327-0.