The Week in Italian Startup

Casavo 🇮🇹raised so far €19.5m out of the €30m in convertible debt as it executes its turnaround plan. Nouscom raised an additional €7m into its Series C round (see TWIS #178) from Angelini Ventures. AION Tech, an API orchestration startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.3m from AATECH SPA SB. StepsConnect, a recruiting-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from a syndicate of investors including 40Jemz Ventures, Eden Ventures, Moonstone Fund, Moffu Labs, and others. Keplero AI, an AI assistant for customer service startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k in a round led by 40Jemz Ventures. Id.Eight, a sustainable sneaker startup, 🇮🇹raised €350k from A|Impact.

Wesii, a company deploying drones to monitor critical infrastructure, 🇮🇹raised €2.8m from Terna Forward and DXT Commodities sa.Cynomys, a Precision Livestock Farming startup, raised €2.1m in a seed round participated by Farming Future, dsm-firmerich Venturing, Levante Capital, SVG Ventures, Plus9, in addition to previous investors.TalentWare, a talent management startup, raised €800k in a pre-seed round led by 360cap.Nozomi Networks, an OT and IOT security company, raised $100m from Mitsubishi Electric and Schneider Electric, among others.

Kurbs Orbital, a space-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €3.7m in a round led by Otb Ventures, joined by Credo Ventures, Galaxia, In-Q-Tel, and Inovo.This Unique, startup offering environmentally sustainable menstrual pads, 🇮🇹raised €0.5m in a bridge round by Ulixes Capital Partners, Moonstone, and Longevity Life Holdings.WAO, a proptech startup, 🇮🇹raised €0.8m in a preseed round from OneDay and business angels.CityZ, a smart parking startup, 🇮🇹raised €0.5m from 40Jemz and Magic Spectrum.Bud power, a food for sports startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount at a €6m pre-money.Bending Spoons is considering a potential acquisition of Vimeo Inc.Italian Artisan 🇮🇹acquired Ad Hoc Atelier and raised €750k from Primo Ventures.Zucchetti 🇮🇹acquired a stake in EsgMax and 🇮🇹Qualitando.Scaglia Indeva 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in SysDesign (exit for Cysero).NetResults acquired Awhy.

Akuis, a fitness-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.15m from ALIcrowd III (Azimut), Wemoove, and X-Equity (a club deal). The Italian government 🇮🇹approved a new allocation worth €150m to support investments in AI, 5g, and cybersecurity. H-Farm received a tender offer to be taken 🇮🇹private. One of the eldest of the Italian startup ecosystem reports is finally out: VEM 2023 A 78-page-strong report on the Italian VC landscape by P101 + Dealroom.

Medical Microinstruments, a medtech company, raised USD 110m in a series C round led by Fidelity Management & Research.3D Nextech, a digital manufacturing startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.5m in a round led by EUREKA! Venture.CaSRevolution, a life sciences startup developing a therapy for Alzheimer's, 🇮🇹raised €1.3m in a crowdfunding round.Superfluid, an Ethereum-based token streaming protocol, raised $5.1m in a round led by Fabric Ventures.Jakala 🇮🇹acquired GotU.Shopfully acquired Ofertia.Reevo acquired Itnet.Everli was actually 🇮🇹taken over by Salvatore Palella, through a €21m capital increase.

Gabriele Venturi is founder of PandasAI, a Python library that adds Generative AI capabilities to pandas, the popular data analysis and manipulation tool. In this conversation, we dive deep into various topics related to AI, including the impact of AI on data analysis, the democratization of data analysis, the role of open source vs. closed source in AI, and the business model and sustainability of open source AI. We explore the future of AI interaction and interfaces, the impact of AI on jobs, and the defensibility of AI companies. Additionally, we discuss the future of machine learning professionals and the advancements in copilot technology. [The episode was recorded in October 2023] Takeaways - AI is transforming data analysis by democratizing access to data and providing new ways to interact with and analyze data. - Open source AI is becoming increasingly popular and is challenging closed source AI by providing more customization and flexibility. - The future of AI interfaces will likely involve a combination of conversational and structured data interactions. - AI has the potential to disrupt certain jobs, but it also creates new job opportunities and enhances productivity in other areas. - The defensibility of AI companies lies in building meaningful products and focusing on customer needs rather than just relying on the technology itself. - The future of machine learning professionals will involve a deeper understanding of AI technology, including the ability to build models from scratch and ensure explainability and determinism. - AI copilots have the potential to greatly enhance productivity and assist in various tasks, but their effectiveness will depend on integration and context-specific applications. - The future of AI will involve advancements in explainability and determinism, addressing the black box nature of AI models and ensuring consistent and coherent outputs. Language models can have biases and preferences towards certain options, which can be a challenge to address. - Unlearning and removing data from AI models is an emerging area of research, with applications in correcting incorrect training data and removing biases.

Sealence, a startup developing sustainable and innovative solutions for the marine industry, raised €7.5m in equity, debt, and grants.Underscore District, a fashion brands accelerator, 🇮🇹raised €4m in a round led by Kairos Ventures ESG One.Addax Biosciences, a biotech startup, raised €2.5m from Fintech Partners.Voidless, a packaging technology startup, raised €2.2m from CDP VC and 360cp.Okapi, a green-tech startup, raised €1m from Digital Magics and Innova Venture.Collecto, a luxury goods crowdfunding startup, 🇮🇹raised €750k in an angel round.Develop-players, an educative gaming startup, 🇮🇹raised €600k from Opes Italia, 20 Fund, and Privilège Ventures.Sense4med, a medtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €510k from Scientifica Venture Capital and Innova Venture.Dafne, a sexual wellness startup, 🇮🇹raised 250k in a pre-seed round participated by Lifegate, Over Ventures, and Open Seed.Paperbox Health, a startup addressing learning disorders in kids, raised €230k in a bridge round by VITA Accelerator.Sella Venture Partners SGR 🇮🇹announced its second fund of funds dedicated to investing in international VC funds.

Tau Group, an energy transition startup, raised €11m in Series B extension funding led by CDP Venture Capital and Santander Alternative Investments.Ventive, a consulting and investment firm for startups , 🇮🇹raised €2.4m from a syndicate of investors.Sikuro, a building site security startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m in a crowdfunding round led by Fleap Holding Spa and Azimut.Renewcast, an energy forecasting startup for wind energy, 🇮🇹raised €850k in a round led by Helen Ventures and Tech4Planet.Glutensens and VisioNing 🇮🇹raised €204k and €184k from Farming Future and ToSeed&Partners.Bending Spoons 🇮🇹announced it is preparing to raise a €200m round.1 I was impressed by their 2023 EBITDA reported in the article: €200m!Panakès Partners led a €30,4m round in Enterprise Therapeutics.Angelini Ventures 🇮🇹invested €8m in Noctrix Health Inc. and COUR Pharmaceuticals.Neophore raised an additional $12.2m in its Series B round from Neva SGR, LIFTT, and Simon Fiduciaria.CDP VC’s fund-of-funds arm invested in Seroba Fund IV, a €123m life sciences fund.Zucchetti 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in Awms.Safilo 🇮🇹acquired a minority stake in Spaarkly.Poké House 🇮🇹acquired Poké House Belgium.SECO was accepted into the Qualcomm IoT Accelerator Program.Opyn 🇮🇹is expanding its BNPL service for businesses to Europe, UK, and Switzerland.🇮🇹15 startups incubated by the Startup Builder to keep an eye on.The Italian “Gazzetta Ufficiale” (the primary source of legal information and the official vehicle for the publication of new laws, decrees, regulations, and other acts of the Italian government) was released as a data set on HuggingFace. Will LLMs manage to understand the intricacies of our legal system?A ✍🏻 survey about the culture of growth in Italian startups: if you are a founder of an Italian startup with a couple of minutes to spare, 🇮🇹click here.Scalapay 🇮🇹appointed Andrea Fumagalli as country manager for Italy.More than 100 businesses 🇮🇹adopted JetHR since its launch.📈Yes, it is cricket: Italy gives the go-ahead to insect flour for human use.EU agrees new rules to cut the cost of listing companies.The 2024 State of Quantum.

Resalis Therapeutics, a biotech startup, announced a €10m round led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures with participation from existing investors.Vitesy, a green-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €3.2m from Doorway and business angels.Algor Education, an AI startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.4m from Emerge Education, Club degli Investitori, 40Jemz Ventures, and Gustaf Nordbäck.OhmSpace, a space-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.2m in a round led by Scientifica Venture Capital, with Innova Venture and Galaxia joining the round.Mbility, a mobility startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from FNM.Excellis, an investment holding, 🇮🇹announced its second capital increase (and 10 investments).IH1, an investment holding, 🇮🇹reached €5m in capital raised.

Aptus.AI, a Pisa-based reg-tech startup, raised €3m in a pre-Series A funding round led by Programma 103, an investment fund managed by P101 Sgr. The round also saw participation from business angels and Fin+Tech, the accelerator of CDP Venture Capital.Digital Magics 🇮🇹is preparing to launch Step Ventures (paywall).Walliance acquired Lymo, France's first crowdfunding platform.TestBusters 🇮🇹acquired UniAdmissions, a UK-based company offering test and admission preparation to Oxford and Cambridge.Dealroom’s ranking of VC investors in EMEA.Italian Tech Alliance’s 🇮🇹report on the performance of equity crowdfunding in Italy.Qomodo 🇮🇹announced a partnership with Mastercard.Chatwin and Over Ventures 🇮🇹teamed up to support startups raising capital.Banca Valsabbina, Azimut, Fleap, and Integrae Sim 🇮🇹announced Fleap Holding, an investment vehicle aiming at investing in startups across Europe and raising capital through quasi-equity instruments (🇮🇹SFP, in Italy) fully tokenized on the blockchain.

Nouscom, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, raised €67.5 million ($72 million) in an oversubscribed Series C financing round. The funding was led by Andera Partners, Bpifrance, and M Ventures, with participation from Revelation Partners, Indaco Venture Partners, Panakès Partners, XGen Ventures, and other undisclosed investors. Planet Farms, an Italian company specializing in controlled environment agriculture, 🇮🇹raised $40m in funding. Xnext, an Italian startup developing X-ray inspection technologies, 🇮🇹raised a venture debt loan of €20m from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Nextsense, an innovative SME of the P&P Patents and Technologies group, raised €3m in a financing round by Angelini Ventures. CarpeCarbon, an Italian startup focusing on CO2 removal from the atmosphere, 🇮🇹raised a pre-seed funding round of €1.765m. The round was led by Tech4Planet and 360 Capital. ReLearn, a Turin-based startup specializing in waste management, 🇮🇹raised a funding round of €1m. The investment was led by Cdp Venture Capital sgr, along with participation from LA4G - Luiss Alumni 4 Growth, Club degli Investitori, LVenture Group, Feel Venture, and Sensible Capital.

Wsense, a submarine connectivity startup, raised €9m from SWEN’s Blue Ocean and CDP Venture Capital SGR among others.Out Of, a sports glasses startup, 🇮🇹raised €7.6m in a crowdfunding round, participated among others by Azimut and Ferrari.NextAI, a conversational AI startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed seed round from Digital Magics and Smart4Tech S.p.A.Cubbit signed a distribution agreement with Exclusive Networks for data security across Europe.Navigating the LLMops landscape: What you need to know.An 🇮🇹interview with Luigi Tommasini, senior partner at FII SGR SpA.

Aindo, a synthetic data startup, raised a $6m series A in a round led by United Ventures and participated by existing investor Vertis SGR. (note: the linked article includes the deck Aindo used to pitch the round.)Qapla', a Florence-based scaleup that develops solutions for e-commerce management, 🇮🇹raised €5m in a Series A round. The funding was led by BlackSheep, with participation from CDP VC's Acceleratori fund and Toscana Next.ClubDeal, a private investment platform, 🇮🇹raised €1.5m in a round led by CDP VC.Arca Dynamics, a startup in the Space Economy, 🇮🇹raised €1.2m for the future of space debris. Investors include Cdp VC, Fondazione Crt, UniCredit, Plug and Play, and Ogr Torino.Tuorlo Magazine, a food-media startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.1m from business angels.Pack, a HR-tech platform, 🇮🇹raised a pre-seed round of €500k. The round was supported by Italian and international investors, including PRAXI Spa, Techstars LLC through Techstars Partners 2021, Ad Maiora Srl, C360, and Happily Welfare srl.Fantix, an NYC-based AI model development startup, raised $1.6m in funding. Investors include Gaingels, Notion Capital, Founders Factory, Fastweb, Connect Ventures, IAG, and B Heroes.

Soul-K, a food-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €20,5m in equity (€13m) and debt (€7.5m) from CDP Venture Capital, LIFTT, Azimut, Simest and existing investors (Innogest, Tan food, Levante Capital SIS). BancaTer acted as the debt provider.BonusX, a startup helping customers receive tax and other bonuses, 🇮🇹raised €3.2m from Giant Ventures, Exceptional Ventures, 2100 Ventures, and business angels.Zakeke, a Visual AI commerce startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m in a SAFE round led by Berrier Capital.ViteSicure, an insuretech startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m in a bridge round from existing investors (CDP VC, Reale Mutua, Apside).Inta Systems, a lab-on-chip startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m from Eureka! Venture, LIFTT, and Deep Ocean Capital.Hoopygang, an influencer marketing startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.25m from CDP VC and Nana Bianca.Bug’s Life, a startup producing insect-based proteins, 🇮🇹raised €552k from Sici and Business Angels.Gevi, a clean energy startup, raised €400k in a pre-seed round participated by 360CP and CDP.Data Masters, an AI-focused edutech startup, raised an additional €200k in its seed round from Primo Ventures, for a total raise of €950k to date.Banca Valsabbina 🇮🇹acquired a 15% stake in ID Defend. The amount invested is undisclosed.Barcelona-based Workfully raised €1.2m.P101 🇮🇹acquired a 24% stake in CityNews, in a secondary transaction.360CP, Indaco and United Ventures 🇮🇹raised €40m in aggregate from Lombardia Ventures, a fund-of-funds initiative from the Lombardia region.

The Circle, an agritech startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.1m from Opes Italia and Sparviero Holding.Hercle, a Milan-based trading startup in the crypto world, 🇮🇹raised €1.7m in a seed investment round. The funding was led by Prana Ventures and Kairos Partners Sgr, with participation from business angels.Test1, a cleantech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.7m from LIFTT, a|impact – Avanzi Etica sicaf, Selected Investments and Faros.eWibe, a premium wine-trading startup, 🇮🇹raised €450k from business angels, bringing its total pre-seed round to €700k.Astradyne, a space-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k from Galaxia and Obloo.Habyt, a flexible housing startup, raised €40m in a Series C round led by Korelya Capital and Deutsche Invest.Vaultik, a crypto startup, raised $2.5 million in funding from The Operating Group.Hypeal, a Netherlands-based digital assets startup, raised €188k in a pre-seed round.

Sidereus Space Dynamics, a company based in Salerno, Italy, raised €5.1m in Seed+ funding. The funding round was led by Primo Space and CDP Venture Capital Sgr, via the Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud fund.Evja, an agritech startup, 🇮🇹raised €4.2m in a pre-Series A round. The funding was led by CDP Venture Capital sgr through Italia Venture II and SEFEA Impact sgr.Cellply, a life sciences startup, raised €3.6m from Recomec, LIFTT, and Schia Ventures.BeSafe Group 🇮🇹closed a Series A round of €3m, led by PranaVentures and Azimut Libera Impresa, on behalf of the Azimut Digitech Fund. The round also included CDP Venture Capital SGR and strategic business angels.PandasAI raised $1.1m in a Pre-Seed round, with funding from Runa Capital, London-based Episode1, and Vento, the Italian arm of Exor Ventures.Inflead, an influencer marketing intelligence platform, 🇮🇹raised €1m from Blacksheep.Enovis to buy surgical implants maker LimaCorporate for €800m.Jakala acquired Roibox.ToolsGroup 🇮🇹acquired Evo.

Shop Circle, an e-commerce software startup based in London, has successfully secured $120m in Series A funding through a combination of debt and equity. The funding was raised from 645 Ventures, NFX, QED, and 3VC. 🇮🇹A syndicate of Italian investors including CDP VC, The Techshop, BlackSheep Ventures, and Primo Ventures joined the round. Finally, I80 Group provided the debt facility.Arduino, the maker of an open-source electronics platform, raised an additional $22m in its Series B round, with CDP Venture Capital and Anzu Partners being the main investors.Avio invested €2.5m in T4i, a spin-off of the University of Padua that specializes in innovative propulsion systems.QuantaBrain, a start-up focused on improving the diagnosis of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders using AI algorithms, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Scientifica Venture Capital.

Focoos AI, an AI optimization startup, raised €335k from CDP and Obloo. Yakkyo, a dropshipping platform, is 🇮🇹considering an IPO. The platform had revenues equal to €6.5m in 2022m with a 15.2% EBITDA margin. Do you remember the AI fund that was announced by the Italian government in May? The fund 🇮🇹will begin with €200m from the government and will be managed by CDP VC. Its aim is to raise up to €600m from private investors. The 🇮🇹problem of the Golden Power for Italian startups. 🇮🇹Reid Hoffman will be in Bologna on the 8th of September, giving a speech to the students of the Bologna Business School. Moneyfarm announced 2.6Bm under management and more than 100k customers, growing at 15% y-o-y.

Bending Spoons 🇮🇹announced a €100m capital injection from Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, and NB Renaissance.Wikicasa 🇮🇹raised €800k.LIFTT 🇮🇹announced a new capital increase, led by Azimut, bringing the total capital raised to €103m. NYP Techfin, a fintech startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount from Banca Valsabbina, for 11% of the company.Milano Investment Partners joined a $3.5M Seed investment in Jellatech, a biotechnology company based in Raleigh, NC.H14 Spa 🇮🇹joined a $12m round in Qualifyze, a German start-up that provides audit services for the pharmaceutical industry.DoubleVerify will acquire Scibids Technology SAS (Blacksheep is an investor) for $125m in a cash and stock transaction.Teamsystem, a digital business management solutions provider based in Pesaro, Italy, 🇮🇹raised funds from Google's CapitalG and Abu Dhabi's Adia.Newcleo 🇮🇹acquired Rütschi, a Franco-Swiss group, for €68.9m.

Leaf Space, a space-tech startup, raised €20m in a round led by CDP VC and Neva SGR. 1000Farmacie, an e-commerce startup, raised a €10m extension to its Series A round.Easyrain, an automotive tech startup, raised €5.8m.WeTaxi, a mobility startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m from CDP VC and Azimut.Orapesce 🇮🇹raised a €500k convertible bond from Intesa.Hale, a Berlin-based femtech startup, raised €350k.Way Experience 🇮🇹raised €200k from Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore, an impact investor.Ener2crowd 🇮🇹closed its €1.2m round opened last January with Crédit Agricole investing €166k.Quince Therapeutics acquired EryDel SpA.CivitFun 🇮🇹acquired Group Reservation System.FITEC 2, a growth stage fund managed by Fondo Italiano d’Investimento, announced its first closing at €137m.CDP VC 🇮🇹announced an innovation center focused on agri-tech, Farming Future, with €20m ready to be invested.Mediobanca and Founders Factory announced a joint venture to invest in fintech startups, with the bank putting up €12m in capital.Getir exited Italy and Portugal.

Energy Dome raised an additional €15m into its Series B round announced back in April. New investors include Vopak Ventures, Sagana, 360CP, and CDP VC. The company has raised €55m so far in the round.BizAway, a travel-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €10m in a debt facility offered by Illimity.Coverzen, an insuretech platform, 🇮🇹raised €3.3m in a round led by Vertis SGR and joined by a group of business angels.ALBA Robot, an autonomous micro-mobility startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.636m in a round led by Cysero and joined by RoboIT and Techstars.BCode, a Web3 startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m in a club deal with business angels.Holidoit, a tourism-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from business angels.Quickfisco, a fiscal-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €900k in a mix of equity crowdfunding and grants.Piece, a real estate investment startup, raised a €650k round from StartupGym, East Ventures, Gaiax, and business angels.CardioaCasa, a telemedicine startup, 🇮🇹raised €250k in an angel round.United Ventures 🇮🇹announced the first closing of its new flagship fund, UV3. The fund has raised €65m so far, with a €150m target.Tinexta and Digital Magics 🇮🇹announced a new joint venture to invest in 10 startups, with a €250k average ticket.VEM Sistemi announced the acquisition of 67% of Neen, an independent cloud hosting provider.Digit’ed 🇮🇹acquired 24ORE Business School, a digital business school. According to 🇮🇹rumors, the price paid was €200m.

Develhope, an edtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €6m from CDP VC, Opes, and Sefea. Crono, a sales-tech startup, raised €500k from SFC Capital, Aticco Ventures, and others. Supermoney, a utilities & finance products comparison company, agreed with VAM SPAC to go public via a merger valuing the company €200m. IREN 🇮🇹acquired 88.43% of ReMat, a circular economy startup, by paying €3.5m. Red Fish Long Term Capital 🇮🇹is planning an IPO with a valuation between €22 and €25m. The company raised previous capital in three crowdfunding campaigns. Stellantis Ventures invested in 10 mobility startups. Blackrock filed an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.

AAvantgarde Bio, a biotech startup, 🇮🇹raised €61m in a round participated by Atlas Venture, Forbion, and Longwood.ISAAC, a building integrity startup, 🇮🇹raised €5m in a round led by CDP VC.Freedome, an outdoor experiences startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.5m in a round led by Opes Italia.Repron Therapeutics, a biotech startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m in a round led by Claris Ventures.Flying Basket, a UAV startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m from Cysero. Also, Leonardo SpA acquired 10% of the company from the founders.Eligo raised €998k from BRB Holding S.r.l.Mundimoto, a Spanish startup selling second-hand motorcycles, 🇮🇹raised €10m and is planning to enter the Italian market.Vection Technologies announced the acquisition of InVRsion.Deep Ocean Capital 🇮🇹announced Deep Blue Ventures, a seed/early-stage fund focused on deep tech (space, AI, health). The fund starts operations with €40.8m in committed capital, and the goal of raising €70m.CDP 🇮🇹announced Galaxia, an aerospace incubator and tech transfer hub.Reading this weekItalian Tech Alliance 🇮🇹published a study on LPs in Italian VC funds. According to the survey, Italian VCs have €1.1Bn in dry powder available.

Fabrick, an open finance hub, raised €40m in a corporate round led by Mastercard. Datamasters, an ed-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €650k. Zanichelli Ventures was among the investors. Valuematic, a data management startup, 🇮🇹raised €160k from Progress Tech Transfer. Contents.com 🇮🇹acquired Scribox. Shopfully and MEDIA Central Group merged. Datamars acquired Kippy. Bending spoons 🇮🇹acquired Humamy. Portale Sardegna 🇮🇹merged with Destionation Italia. Abiogen Pharma acquired EffRx Pharmaceuticals. Italy to launch a €150m fund for AI startups.

MiScusi, a fresh pasta restaurant chain, 🇮🇹raised €10m from Mip, Picus, Kitchen Fund, Amundi, and Gaetano Marzotto. Kampaay, an event tech startup, announced a €7.3m round from 360cp, SG Company, and Gellify. Poke House, a poke restaurant chain, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount in a round including Red Circle Investments. Dscovr, a customer insights startup, raised €2m from Azimut Digitech, Exor, Bonsai Ventures, IAG, Growth Engine. Future Fashion 🇮🇹raised €1.5m in equity and debt from SICI. Blogmeter was 🇮🇹acquired by Shibumi Group. Bizplace was 🇮🇹acquired by Alchimia investments. White Bridge investments 🇮🇹launched a bid for Reevo, a listed cybersecurity company, at €17.6 per share. Three Hills Capital Partners 🇮🇹signed an agreement to acquire Digital360, a listed media company. Newcleo announced a €3Bn investment plan in France. Angelo Moratti 🇮🇹invested as an LP in Sound Ventures, Ashton Kutchner’s fund focusing on AI. AngeList: “After 18 Months, Your Investment Probably Isn’t Getting Marked Up“ ROAD, the Rome Advanced District, was 🇮🇹inaugurated last week. Eni, Acea, and others among the partners. Primo Ventures announced a strategic partnership with Lifegate. Axelera AI, a Netherlands-based startup designing microprocessing units for edge AI, raised an additional USD$ 23m into its Series A round from CDP VC and Verve Ventures. Newtwen, a digital twin startup, 🇮🇹raised €7m from 360cp and JOIN Capital. Agade, a startup developing an industrial exoskeleton, 🇮🇹raised €4m in a round participated by Cysero, Brembo Ventures, CDP VC, EIC Fund, 360cp, and GeneraImprese. CaSRevolution, a life sciences startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.8m from Utopia Sis and a group of business angels. I-Tes, an energy efficiency startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.4m from Eureka! Ventures and Tech4Planet. Angelini Ventures invested USD$ 6m (out of a USD $26m round) in US-based Cadence Neuroscience, an anti-epilepsy startup. Stellantis Ventures invested in Lyten, a tunable three-dimensional graphene startup. SilverLake acquired a minority stake in TeamSystem for $660m. Neosperience is planning to IPO its Neosperience Health subsidiary on the Nasdaq. Fabrick acquired Judopay. Rancilio Cube Sicaf 🇮🇹raised €12m. CDP VC 🇮🇹launched StyleIT, the fashion-tech accelerator.

Bending Spoons raised a €70m debt facility from SACE and Intesa Sanpaolo.Viceversa, a revenue-based financing startup, raised €10m in a round led by CDP VC.Primo Space announced an undisclosed investment in Lulav Space, an Israeli space tech startup.ALICE, Beyond CrioPurA, e-CO2Synt, and IliCO2Sep raised €1m in funding from Eureka! Ventures.Clearbox AI, a synthetic data startup, raised €385k in a seed round.Startup Geeks, an edutech platform for entrepreneurs, raised funding from Seed Money.Prometheus, a medtech startup, raised €2.7m in a crowdfunding campaign. Fintech Partners invested €0.5m in the campaign.MyNet, a productivity startup, raised funding from Credemtel.Fasanara acquired 10% of CashInvoice, a B2B BNPL startup.Adams Biotech raised a €470k loan facility.Club degli Investitori invested in Largix, an Israeli 3D printing startup.New fundsItalian Angels for Growth and Catalyst Investors Club announced Catalyst Crowd, a new crowdinvesting platform for European startups.Moonstone, a new micro VC with the goal to invest up to €50k in 60 startups in two years, was launched.Azimut announced Automobile Heritage Enhancement, a fund investing in classic cars.Doorway and Seedblink joined forces to share dealflow to their investor networks .A research on Italian VC by the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan, alongside other business schools in EU, shows that VC in Italy are slightly less more risk averse than US or European ones.PWC published a research on the economic impact of PE and VC in Italy.

We Are Emma, a hair wellness startup, raised €1.6m from a syndicate of business angels.ReasonedArt, an art tech startup, raised €1.4m in a round led by Woori Technology Investment.Nibol, a flexible work startup, raised €500k from CDP VC.TextYess, an eCommerce-tech startup, raised €450k in a seed round from a syndicate of angels and micro-seed funds.Sealence, a maritime technology startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Progress Tech Transfer.Filo was acquired by Traveler Innovations Ltd.Sesa Group acquired Visualitics.

Prestatech, an embedded finance startup, announced a €4m round led by CDP Venture Capital.eWibe, a marketplace for premium wines, raised €250k from Bonsai Ventures.Navia Yachts, a startup developing an electric dinghy, aised €250k.WarrantHub (Tinexta group) acquired a minority stake (9.1%) in Opstart.Contents.com acquired French startup Scribeur.com.Report: Raising capital in Italy, by Startup Wise Guys.AngelList’s 1Q23 State of Venture report.Cubbit expands its distributed cloud storage system.While everyone is focused on AI, A16Z published their 2023 State of Crypto Report.

Kopjra, a legal/cybersec startup, raised €870k in a crowdfunding campaign led by Azimut.Azimut invested €40m in Alps Blockchain, an operator of sustainable mining farms, directly and by promoting a club deal. Oversonic robotics, a robot startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Cysero. IAG sold its stake in Ultroneo srl to Sistemi SpA.UnipolSai acquired DaVinci Salute.The Italian Garante della Privacy asked OpenAI to limit its ChatGPT service in Italy, allegedly for misusing the personal data of Italian people (while training its AI) and for allowing access to the service to kids younger than 13 years old. The Garante asked for corrective actions and threatened a €20m fine if the company does not comply. The Italian government is proposing new legislation to ban the production and distribution of lab-grown food in Italy.Fun fact: if the EU approved a producer of lab-grown food from some other EU country, this would be able to sell its products in Italy, because EU approval would have priority. Wesual, a visual content creation startup, raised €1.25m from CDP, LVenture, and Encelado Ventures.A few weeks ago, Meta removed all Italian music due to a dispute over licensing with SIAE.More recently, the Italian Antitrust agency opened an investigation against Meta.Meanwhile, Soundreef, a digital rights platform alternative to SIAE, restored access to a portion of its catalog to Meta users.

HT Materials Science, an Irish-Italian startup, raised $15m from Saudi Aramco, Barclays, CDP VC, and Progress Tech Transfer.Cosmico, a talent-tech startup, raised €1.85m from Prana Ventures, Bonsai Ventures, Growth Engine, and a syndicate of business angels.Quisto, a supply-chain startup for the restaurant sector, raised €800k in a pre-seed round.360CP is preparing to launch Poli360 II.Scientifica VC announced Quantum Italia, an investment vehicle dedicated to quantum tech.IPO, M&A, and other liquidity eventsCube Labs went public with a €34.1m market cap.Antares Vision Group acquired 15% of Isinnova, paying €1.5m.Teamsystem acquired Microntel SpA.Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence - early experiments with GPT4Fasanara Capital on The Future of FinanceNewcleo is opening a €1bn roundThe Italian SAFE

Subscribe to the channel for weekly updates.  Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/  Listen to all episodes on audio: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQ Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RC Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3Elhykq  #venturecapital #italy #startup  -   Newronica, a neural devices startup, received a €2.5m grant from EIC.  Billoo, a price comparison service for utilities, raised €1m from business angels.  Not exactly a new fund in Italy, but UK-based Exceptional Ventures (founded by Paolo Pio) 🇮will be hosting a couple of events on the 15th and 16th in Turin and Milan to present their fund and look for startups in the health and wellness sector.  Azimut is raising its third ALICrowd fund, with a target of €40m, on its very own crowdfunding platform (Mamacrowd). ALICrowd II raised +€31m exactly one year ago.  dPixel, a venture advisor and accelerator, announced AG 4 Future Food Accelerator.  Scalapay acquired Cabel IP for an undisclosed amount.  Credimi will allegedly be acquired by Banca CF+ for €5m, plus an additional €5m earnout.  Cube Labs, a health-tech venture builder, is working on a listing on the Euronext Growth Milan (professional segment) and aiming for a pre-money valuation north of €30m.  Digital Magics and LVenture Group, two big players in the startup acceleration and seed investment market in Italy, are working on a merger.  Nutribees was acquired by SecondChef.  CDP VC takes stock of its accelerators’ master project In brief:  180 partners  200 startups accelerated so far  18 active programs  €135m mobilized

Caracol, an industrial additive manufacturing startup, raised €10.6m in a round led by CDP VC and Neva SGR. Existing investors Primo and Eureka! joined the round.  BeDimensional, a new materials startup, raised €10m in a round led by CDP VC alongside Eni Next and NovaCapital.  Angiodroid, a medtech startup, raised €7m in a Series A round led by CDP VC alongside ALIAD and 8a+ Investment.  LimoLane, a premium chauffeur service startup launched by Gellify, raised €4m in a syndicated round led by Fabio Nalucci and Equity Venture Club.  CercaOfficina.it raised €1.7m in a round led by Azimut Digitech Fund.  MamaClean, a laundry-as-a-service startup, raised €1m from business angels and CDP VC.  CyLock, a cybersecurity startup, raised an undisclosed amount from undisclosed investors. Duh.  Dylog group acquired a controlling stake in Cmh.  Marposs acquired Digital Strategy Innovation.  CDP launched a new food-tech accelerator, FoodSeed.

United Ventures led a $21m round in Electra, a Boston-based startup developing battery-optimization software for the automotive market. Other investors include LIFTT, Stellantis Ventures, Club degli Investitori, and BlackBerry Limited.  Microtech, a PC and tablet brand, raised €2.8m in a crowdfunding campaign, with 0.75m invested by Anthilia Capital Partners sgr and 1.2m by Azimut’s AliCrowd.  BeyondTheBox, an edtech startup, raised €650k from POLIMI Graduate School of Management, CDP Venture Capital, and SuperCharger Ventures.  Ittinsect, a biotech startup, raised €625k from CDP VC, Katapult Ocean, Indico Capital Partners, LVenture Group, and business angels.  Holifya, a DNA analysis startup, raised €500k from Growth Engine, Exor and B4i.  Fler, a startup developing hair removal products (i.e. razors!), raised €380k from Bonsai Ventures and Loop srl.  Human Bio Innovation raised an undisclosed amount from Nova Capital.  Wealthype, formerly known as Virtual B, raised an undisclosed amount from Azimut Enterprises.  Napo Therapeuthics S.p.A., the Italian arm of Napo Therapeutics Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaguar Health Inc.), raised a private placement round from SPRIM Global Investments.  Tulips acquired Green Project for an undisclosed amount.  Consensys acquired HAL for an undisclosed amount.  Ih1, the investment holding set up by Mamazen, announced its second closing at 3.65m.