Spain’s flowers home delivery company The Colvin Co. raised 8 million euros in a series A round (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Milano Investment Partners sgr and AD4Ventures, the corporate venture capital of Mediaset, poured 2 million euros in the company that in October 2018 had received 6 millions from Programma 102, the second venture capital fund of P101 sgr. Colvin will invest such proceeds in its international expansion, brand awareness and organic development.Andrés Cester, ceo of Colvin said that these resources will help the company to start its activities in Northern Europe. In November 2016, Cester founded the company with Marc Olmedillo, and Sergi Bastardas, three alumni of Barcelona business school ESADE.
On 12 April, Friday, the first season of B Heroes, a TV documentary about innovation and startup, ended after 15 episodes.
Only 20 startups featured in the show for which 650 companies applied. Silvia Candiani, ceo of Microsoft Italia; Laurent Foata, managing director of Ardian Growth; and Dina Ravera, executive manager, board member e business angel, carried out the screening of the businesses. Four startups reached the final stage of the 2019 edition of B Heroes: D-Heart, a producer of medical devices for smartphones born in 2015; Enerbrain, an energy efficiency company for residential buildings that uses the fuzzy logics and the Internet of things technology; Fessura, a producer of sneakers with innovative design and technology; and Mkrs, a videogames company. Enerbrain won the financing of 0.5 million euros. D-Heart received 0.3 million. Mkers had 0.2 million and Fessura 0.1 million.
Aim-listed Solutions Capital Management set up a club deal for investing in Wishraiser, the charity lottery web platform (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Investors will create a newco with a 2.5 million euros fundraising target. The newco will join a capital increase for acquiring the majority of the business. Mario Salsano, Cristiano Mazzarini, Riccardo Mollaretti, and Daniele Orazi founded Wishraiser in 2015.
Phygital Hub, the Italian location that connects B2B software startups with established companies, started its activity (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Phygital Hub belongs to Italian innovation platform Gellify, of which Lucia Chierchia is the managing partner and head of i4.0. Accenture Italia is the main partner of Phygital Hub, which receives support also from Electrolux, Milan Polytechnic University, and Bologna University.
Deed, the Italian wearable devices startup, raised 500k euros through a seed round that involved a club deal of private investors and business angels that the Corniola family office led acting as anchor investor (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Deed will invest these proceeds in the launch of an equity crowdfunding campaign on US platform Kickstarter in 2019. The company aims to raise funds for launching a device with the functions of smart-watch and fitness-tracker. Emiliano and Edoardo Parini launched Deed in 2016. The company previously received the support ofI3P, the Turin-based incubator that Turin Polytechnic University, Turin Municipality, Turin Chamber of Commerce, Finpiemonte, and Fondazione Torino Wireless founded. I3P helped 240 businesses to raise 65 million.
StartHope, the venture capital fund of the central Italian Region of Abruzzo sold ahead of the schedule its stake in energy efficiency company Suncity to the business founders (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sources said to BeBeez that in 2014 StartHope invested 0.85 million euros for a 36.95% stake in Suncity. Ceo Massimo Cavaliere and chairman Attilio Piattelli founded the the company, of which Pietro Pitingolo is the coo.
