Since 2014, Italian SMEs raised 249 million of euros through the channels of equity crowdfunding, P2P lending, and real estate crowdfunding or lending, according to a report about Crowdinvesting of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano (Polimi) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Giancarlo Giudici is the director of Polimi’s Observatory about crowdinvesting. However, crowdinvesting volumes in Italy are lower than in France, Germany and the UK. The Italian platforms that concluded more campaigns and raised the highest amount of capital are Mamacrowd (9.3 million), Crowdfundme (6.8 million), and Starsup (3.5 million). None of the companies that received such resources realised an exit, nor defaulted or written-off the capital it raised. After the first campaign, vendors raised funds with further rounds at higher mutliples. Therefore, the Polimi’s Italian Equity Crowdfunding Index went up 16.59%.
TrueLayer, the London fintech company that Italian entrepreneurs Francesco Simoneschi (ceo) and Luca Martinetti(cto) founded in 2016, raised 7.5 million of US dollars through an investment round that British venture capital Northzone led (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Last year in February, TrueLayer cashed in seed financing of 1 million from Connect Ventures and 3 million from Anthemis, an UK venture capital with a focus on fintech that in 2016 signed a co-investment agreement worth 200 million of euros with Unicredit. TL is a producer of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and will invest such resources for expanding its French, German, and European activities. Shefali Roy, the former chief commercial officer of Apple and Stripe, joined the company as coo. TL already signed commercial agreements with Monzo, Starling Bank, Zopa, ClearScore, Canopy, Plum, BitBond, Emma, Anorak, CreditLadder, and other firms of this standard.
GenomeUp, an Italian biotech startup, raised 60k euros from Italian financial firm LVenture Group and a total of 200k euro from further business angels investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Simone Gardini is the ceo of GenomeUp, a startup accelerator sponsored by LVenture Group.
Cassa depositi e prestiti and the European Investment Fund launched Caravella, an investment fund aiming at supporting business angels that inject resources in SMEs and startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Caravella will sign long-term committement with investors and make available an amount of equity for the investments of each business angel. Caravella already reached agreements with 80 business angels for 200 million of euros out of its available resources worth 320 million.
Italian financial firm Vertis invested in VRMedia, a spin-off of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa that develops technology for the augmented reality and wearable items for the maintenance of industrial systems (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sandro Bacinelli (president and ceo), Franco Tecchia, Monica Vignoni, Marcello Carrozzino, and Massimo Bergamasco founded VRMedia in 2008.
Italianway, the Italian platform for short-term accommodation rentals, raised four million o f euros from a sole investor (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Advisory firm Vintage Capital owns 22% of the company through Hinvest in which in turnReal Estate Services, a firm og Guglielmo Tabacchi, holds 85%. HQ Industrial Assets has 52.61% of Italianway, which invest such resources for its organic development. Davide Scarantino is the company’s founder.
Kellify, the fintech startup headquartered in Genoa and the Swedish city of Malmo, raised 1.73 million of US dollars from Alberto Adorini (previously ceo of Payleven) e Riccardo Bianco (previously ceo of Spontex Italy) and other investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Francesco Magagnini (ceo) and Fabrizio Malfanti (Chief Math Officer) founded the company after having spun it off from Centrally, a Genoa-based artificial intelligence startup. Kellify developed proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms for analysing big data about the art market, sport betting and commodities trading. Last year in December, Kellify issued an equity-like Ethereum denominated financial instruments worth 1.1 million of euros aimed at raising proceeds for hiring human resources in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Shareholders of Kellify are Magagnini (35%), Malfanti (35%), the company’s employees (5%), and financial investors (25%).
Milan-listed Banca Sistema will raise European savings for its accounts through German fintech company Deposit Solutions (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Gianluca Garbi, the ceo of the Italian firm, said that European citizens will be able to subscribe Banca Sistema saving accounts and rely on the Italian interbanking fund for deposits protection without having to open a further bank account. Tim Sievers founded scaleup Deposit Solutions in 2011 and since then raised 43.6 million of US dollars through several investment rounds. E.Ventures, a firm with liaisons with e-commerce business Otto Group, Greycroft Partners, and others invested in Deposit Solutions together with Valar Ventures, the firm of Silicon Valley’s serial entrepreneurs Peter Thiel, and Germany-listed fintech private equity house FinLab.
Italian fintech open banking enabling platform Fabrick and German firm Finleap launched together Beesy, a portal that allows entrepreneurs and professionals to compare accounting, tax, and banking instruments and options (see here a previous post by BeBeez).Paolo Zaccardi is ceo of Fabrick, of which Banca Sella owns 80%. After having led a seed round of 2.1 million, Fabrick acquired a minority of Beesy of which Finleap is the majority shareholder. FinLeap supports fintech startups and Marco Berini is the ceo of the Italian subsidiary.
