Italian investors look at domestic and foreign startups and set up new venture firms.
Lendix, the French platform for SMEs lending, raised funds for 32 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Lead investors Idinvest Partners, Allianz France, and CIR spa, the listed Italian investment holding that belongs to the De Benedetti Family, led this investment round to whom also participated Partech Ventures, CNP Assurances, Matmut, and Decaux Frères Investissement. The company will invest its proceeds for expanding its geographic coverage. Since 2015 Lendix issued loans to SMEs worth 190 million.
US venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners invested 20 million of US dollars in Milan’s startup 4ward365, a provider of safety monitoring services for Microsoft Office 365 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). David Mascarella and Ivan Fioravanti founded 4ward365 that now rebranded as CoreView and appointed as ceo David Moran, while Mascarella will work as Chief Global Strategist and Fioravanti as CTO.
Moneyfarm, the Italian digital financial advisor, raised 46 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Allianz Asset Management together with Italian and British venture capital firms United Ventures and Cabot Square acted as lead investors. Endeavor Catalyst and Fondazione di Sardegna also participated to this round. Moneyfarm moved its headquarter to London and operates under the regulation of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in UK and of Consob in Italy.
Satispay, an Italian scaleup that provides payment services, is going to launch a new capital increase, said Stefano Schiavio, the company’s head of financial partnerships speaking at an event in Milan (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Alberto Dalmasso, Dario Brignone, and Samuele Pinta founded Satispay. Two new banks and venture capital firms are said to subscribe the new capital increase. Satispay previously raised a total of 26.3 million euros from investors, of which 18.3 millions in a unique round last year. Iccrea Banca, Banca Sella, Banca Etica and Banca Alpi Marittime are among actual investors together with Jonathan Weiner and Ray Iglesias, founders of Money 2020; venture capital firm Shark Bites; Piedmont multiutility company Egea. The list of investors also includes Nicola Carbonari (the founder of Autoscout24), Giuseppe Donagemma (the former vice president networks of Samsung Electronics and Nokia), and the members of Smartclub, an investment company headed by Alessandro Fachin, a senior private banker of Ersel.
Milano Investment Partners, an Italian venture capital firm for scaleup stage investments, announced the first closing for MIP I, its new fund targeting a final closing at 100 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Angelo Moratti, a member of the family that owns listed oil company Saras, is the anchor investor for the fund as he hods a 10% stake, while Banco Bpm is the main institutional investor. Further shareholders of the managing company are Stefano Guidotti (cofounder and former ceo of U-Start), Igor Pezzilli (cofounder of Lazada, a South-East Asian online retailer that Alibaba acquired for 1.5 billion of US dollars), and Paolo Gualdani, the head of venture capital investment of Angel Capital Management, the holding od Moratti. MIP will acquire minorities of companies with sales of 3 -15 million of euros.
