Wealthy Italian people and business ladies and men keep showing a keen interest in investing in ICOs, venture capital firms, as well as angels and incubators. Here is a roundup for news starting from Feb 5th till Feb 12th.
Stefano Guidotti (co-founder and former CEO of U-Start), Igor Pezzilli (former head of Lazada, an Asian company that Alibaba acquired), and Angelo Moratti, a member of the family that founded listed Italian oil company Saras, started the fundraising for Milano Investment Partners (MIP) sgr with a target of 100 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Angel Capital Management (fka Angel Lab), a financial holding of the Moratti family will subscribe 10% of the firm’s limited partnerships. MIP will acquire relevant minorities of startup operating in sectors that are traditionally part of the Made In Italy industries with the potential to grow internationally and generating between 3 and 15 million of euros in revenues. Angel Capital Management and Kairos Investment Management, a London based private bank and wealth management, hold a stake in U-Start, an advisory firm that helps tech companies to match with private Italian and foreign investors. Guidotti and Colombo founded U-Start. Last year in November, Angel Capital Management helped the Italian bakery group Princi to sign a joint venture agreement with Starbucks, the US-listed chain of bars.
Milan based DFLabs spa, a cybersecurity startup, attracted investments worth 3.5 million of US dollars from Evolution Equity Partners, a firm that in May 2016 funded the company with 5.5 million of US dollars (see here a previous post by BeBeez). DF so raised a total of 9 million of US dollars. Dario Forte is the ceo and founder of the company that last year doubled its revenues and opened branches in London and Boston. DFLabs supplies many of the Fortune 500 companies with IncMan, a tool to promptly handle cyber-accidents.
Iconium spa, an Italian company that aims to invest in blockchain-based fundraisings and ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), processes that allow entrepreneurs and investors to finance projects with cryptocurrencies (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Once the ICO is complete, the newly issued cryptocurrency is immediately available for trading on global ‘Exchange’ markets. ICOs can, therefore, be very liquid investments. Fabio Pezzotti and Domenico Laudonia, Iconium founders, financed the company and decided to launch a capital increase through a private deal with selected investors. Iconium founders are. Pezzotti is a serial entrepreneur and investor in tech startups. Furthermore, he’s the chief executive officer of Xandas Ventures, an early stage investor in the fields of mobile internet, the blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. The firm portfolio includes Chupamobile, a UK based e-commerce platform that sells components for apps and games to customize, and Wanderio, an Italian web platform for planning journeys. Pezzotti also founded UK’s Mobango, a video games app for smartphones, that Mumbai-based People Infocom, a company that belongs to VCs Sequoia and Intel Capital, acquired. Laudonia is a partner of Italian Brand Factory an incubator of startups that operate in made in Italy sectors. Laudonia also worked as corporate business development director for Qualcomm Italy and as advisor of Qualcomm Venture for Italian investments.
