At the end of February 2020, Iwoca, a fintech lending platform for SMEs based in the UK, raised a venture debt round of 100 million euros that asset manager BNY Mellon entirely subscribed through Insight Investments (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2017, Neva Finventures, the corporate venture capital division of Intesa Sanpaolo, invested in Iwoca, which will invest the recently raised proceeds in developing its business in Germany. Christoph Rieche (ceo) and James Dear, two former bankers of Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, founded Inwoca in 2012. Since its foundation, the company attracted 500 million euors both in debt and equity instruments from investors. January’s BeBeez Insight View about machine learning, artificial intelligence and fintech is available for the subscribers to BeBeez News Premium.
Alberto Grignolo is the new co-ceo of Milan-listed incubator H-Farm (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Grignolo will manage the companies’ corporate activities and and the business units Education and Innovation. Grignolo joined the board of H-Farm on 14 January 2020. He previously worked as general manager and coo for Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, an online fashion retailer that Swiss listed competitor Richemont acquired in 2018 for 5.3 billion euros. In December 2019, H-Farm launched a capital increase of 8 million through the issuance of hybrid instruments that Cattolica Assicurazioni (7 million) and Riccardo Donadon subscribed. For 2018, H-Farm posted losses of 4.9 million (6.2 million in 2017), an ebitda of 1.1 million (minus 2.1 million) and a turnover of 61.5 million with debts of 5.7 million (4.1 million). However, for 1H19, the company’s ebitda is of minus 2.4 million (1.35 million in 1H18) with losses of 5.16 million, equity of 16 million (21 million) and net financial debt of 5.86 million (5.7 million).
SalvaCasa, a benefit startup that provides support for facing real estate foreclosure issues, raised 1.08 million euros from 40 investors that subscribed a capital increase on the ground of an enterprise value of 12 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Cesare Rosati founded SalvaCasa in 2012.
