Progetto Banca Idea – Pbi, the fintech bank for the SMEs that Roberto Nicastro launched with Federico Sforza and other investors, closed its previously announced 45 million euros round and the acquisition of Fide, a consumer credit company (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Pbi attracted resources from 360 Capital Partners, Bertoldi Holding, Banca Sella,Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa, Gruppo Generali, La Scogliera spa, Banca Ifis, FB5 Investments, ISA, Micheli Associati, CloseToMedia, and other firms and investors. Pbi will have Nicastro as non executive chairman and Sforza as ceo. Further directors of Pbi are Elena Adorno, Giovanni Beninati, Emanuele Buttà, Andrea Correale, Stefano Gallotti, Alessio Marras, Federico Provinciali, and Giuseppe Rumi.
Cdp Venture Capital sgr (former Invitalia Ventures sgr) announced its 2020-2022 business plan including 7 funds with resources amounting to one billion euros (800 million already subscribed) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The Italian Ministry for the Economic Development (MISE) poured 260 millions in the funds and will co-invest with the following funds of Cdp Venture Capital: Fondo Italia Venture (80 million resources and a portfolio of 20 companies in their growth stage); Fondo Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud (150 million resources); Fondo di Fondi VenturItaly, a fund of venture capital funds (300 million resources received from Cdp Equity and the co-investiment fund of Mise); Fondo Acceleratori (125 million resources from Cdp Equity and the co-investiment fund of Mise); Fondo Corporate Venture Capital (150 million resources; starting its activity in 3Q20); Fondo Tech Transfer (150 million resources; starting its activity in 3Q20); Fondo Late Stage (100 million resources; starting its activity in early 2021).
Spanish e-retailer for flowers Colvin raised a series B round of 14 million euros (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Milano Investment Partners (MIP), P101, ITA500, and Samaipata invested in Colvin, which previously raised 8 million in April 2019 from MIP and AD4Ventures, the corporate venture capital of Mediaset, who provided advertising facilities for equity. Colvin attracted 6 million from P101 in 2018. Colvin raised 3 million in previous rounds from Samaipata Ventures and Mediaset Spain. The company will invest the last proceeds in hiring further resources, its organic development and consolidating its position in Italy, Spain, Germany, and Portugal. Colvin raised a total of 24 million since Sergi Bastardas, Andrés Cester and Marc Olmedillo founded it in November 2016.
Siemens acquired UK startup UltraSoC from Italian Indaco Ventures Partners (27%) and other investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Andrew Hopkins, Karl Heeks, and Klaus McDonald-Maier founded UltraSoC in 2006. Since then the company raised 21.3 million US Dollars in 7 rounds. Indaco has resources of 250 million euros spread over Indaco Ventures, Atlante Seed, Atlante Ventures, Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno, and TTVenture. Indaco was born in 2016, Davide Turco and the former managers of Intesa Sanpaolo venture capital own 51% of the fund.
Manni Oil, an Italian startup that produces high-end olive oil, raised 4 million euros in equity and debit from Duncan Niederauer, the former ceo of New York Stock Exchange, and Keith Stoltz (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Manni launched a capital increase of 2.55 million euros and signed a mortgage facility of 1.4 million from an undisclosed European bank. Armando Manni founded the company in 2006 and developed the proprietary production process MANNI® Live Oil (MLO®). The company will invest the raised proceeds in developing further the MLO® process and the project TPO – The Perfect Oil for building a crusher based on a circular economy process.
Angels4Innovation and Impact Angels Italia merged and created Angels4Impact (A4I) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The incubator Impact Hub Milano said that Angels4Impact will focus on impact investing with the support of 60 business angels which invested more than 4.5 million euros in more than 40 startups.
US startup Evergreen Theragnostics raised 1 million US Dollars (out of a total round of 19 millions) from Club degli Investitori (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Evergreen Theragnostics was born in 2019 and will invest such proceeds in its organic development.
Rs Productions and Portobello, the owners of the publishing firm Web Magazine Makers (WMM), launched Immediate, a vertical business accelerator for the European media and entertainment sectors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Rs Productions will act as media partner and make available its know how and production assets. Milan-listed Iervolino Entertainment, Atlas Film Finance, Gruppo Digital Bros, and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center are also part of Immediate. Luciano Bernardini de Pace owns 51% WMM, a company that he founded in 2019 with Portobello (24.5% owner) and RS Production (24.5% owner). De Pace will be the chairman and chief branding officer of Immediate, for which Pietro Peligra will act as ceo. In January 2019, Portobello acquired 4% of ClubDeal, the owner of equity crowdfunding platform ClubDealOnline.com, through the subscription of a capital increase. In February 2019, Portobello raised 2 million in direct lending Hedge Invest.
Winelivery raised 2.5 million euros from Intesa Sanpaolo, wich provided a convertible financing facility (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In July 2019, the company closed a bridge round of 1.5 million and attracted resources from GDI (Gellify Digital Investment), which acquired a minority of the company in January 2020. Francesco Magro and Andrea Antinori founded Winelivery in 2016. The company also closed three equity crowdfunding campaigns on CrowdFundMe: 0.15 million in May 2017 (pre-money value of 1.2 million); 0.4 million in January 2018 (pre-money value of 3.2 million), and more than 1.2 million in January 2019 (pre-money value of 7.2 million).
U-Start, part of Angel Capital Management, acquired a minority of Emotion Network a mentoring platform (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Mattia Mor, Karin Fischer, Massimo Redaelli, Alec Ross, Claude Finckenberg, Thomas Schneider, and Gianluca D’Agostino founded Emotion Network which is the owner of the format Tech.Emotion – Empower Human Potential, an international summit that will take place in Milan in 2021.
Bridge Asset, an Italiana lending crowdfunding platform for the real estate, started its activity (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Bridge Asset will allow to invest in transactions with a yield of 11% and a tenure of up to 15 months and an investment ticket of at least 500 euros. Bridge Asset is a partner of Lemonway, a payment agent that received the authorization from Banque de France and Italy’s Consob.
Bloovery, an online platform for flower shops, extended to 3 July, Friday, the deadline for its equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd (see here a previous post by BeBeez). This campaign started in March and LVenture invested in Bloovery, which set a fundraising target of 100k-300k euros with tickets of at least 499,67 euros on the ground of a pre-money value of 2 million. The company already attracted 153k euros from 33 investors for an overfunding of 153%. Simone Guzzetti (ceo) and Michele Dondi (cmo) founded Bloovery in 2018 together with developers that previously worked for Yoox. The company has sales of 0.320 million and more than 90 B2B clients.
Lazio Innova (an in house providing company of the Lazio Region) and IAG (Italian Angels for Growth) signed a biennial partnership for supporting the local startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). IAG and the investment committe of Innova Venture, whose members are Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, Stefano Peroncini and Peter Mayrl, will select the investment targets. The startups may receive a co-investiment of the venture capital of the Lazio Region.
Barberino’s Classic Italian Barber raised more than one million euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on the Italian portal Mamacrowd (See here a previous post by BeBeez). The company’s pre-money value amounted to 5.2 million. Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, a venture partner of Idinvest Partners and head of Cross Border Growth Capital, poured resources together with business angels and Barberino’s stakeholders. Michele Callegari and Niccolò Bencini founded Barberino in 2015 which in May 2020 attracted the minority investment of Net4Capital and has sales of 1.34 million with an ebitda of 62,000 euros.
Italian fintech companies managed to increase their market shares during the coronavirus turmoil, while 20% expects to increase its turnover (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Digital lending businesses grew by 100% – 300%, said EY report “Covid19-Banking challenges and the New Normal”. A report of the Fintech & Insurtech Observatory of Milan Polytechnic University said that the online banking sector grew by 198%.
Quant Network and SIA, the Italian paytech that belongs to Cdp Equity, signed a partnership for testing the interoperational compatibility of different blockchain networks (See here a previous post by BeBeez). The companies integrated the Overledger technology of Quant Network with the blockchain infrastructure of SIAchain. The capitalization of Quant’s token amount to above 116 million US Dollars.
