Data by CrowdfundingBuzz (a publication of EdiBeez srl as well as BeBeez) say that in 1H20, Italian equity crowdfunding platforms allowed to raise 39 million euros (+40% yoy), through 67 campaigns (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Median targets amounted to 0.582 million (0.405 million). BacktoWork, CrowdFundMe (+75%) and TwoHundred (+64%) hosted the campaigns that raised more.
Since 2013, global investments in insurtech grew from 1 billion dollars to 7 billion in 2019 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). US and Asian markets attracted 11.4 billions and 3.6 billions respectively. European insurtech sector attracted 2.9 billion. Between 2010 and 2019, Italian insurtech companies received resources worth just 100 millions, while investors poured 900 millions in UK and German companies. Simone Ranucci Brandimarte, the chairman of Italian Insurtech Association (IIA), shared such data on the sidelines of the call for ideas of Vittoria Hub, an insurtech incubator of Vittoria Assicurazioni. The 10 winners of the call are Movalyse, a Slovenian startup,
Italian SaveBiking, Maioun, Ernesto, MedicalBox, VillageCare, CyberAngels, Lokky, Medea, and HLPY.
Conio, a fintech B2B provider of blockchain services, joined Nexi Open, the open banking ecosystem of Milan-listed paytech Nexi (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Christian Miccoli founded San Francisco-based Conio, together with Vincenzo Di Nicola in 2015. Poste Italiane paid 3 million euros in 2016 for a 20% of the business. Banca Finint, Fabrick, Boost Heroes, Italian Angels for Growth, and David Capital also poured resources in Conio together with other professional and institutional investors. In June 2018, Conio raised 3 million US Dollars through a capital increase. Nexi is one of the companies that BeBeez Private Data monitors. Find out here about the post-lockdown offer: from 1 June to 31 December 2020 for only 550 euros!
Andrea Beltratti and Marco Formento joined the board of Italian science company Kellify as non-executive directors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Non-executive director Riccardo Bianco will keep his role and joined Stanford University Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies as seed consultant. Kellify already raised more than 3 million US Dollars from private investors and in December 2017 issued hybrid instruments denominated in Ethereum worth 1.1 million euros.
Smartika, the peer to peer lending platform of Gruppo Sella, launched an open banking for its business in partnership with Centrico, a bpo and tech company of Gruppo Sella, the open banking platform Fabrick and Quid Informatica, an asset of Equinox and Qinetic (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Rosy Alaia is the ceo of Smartika, a company that Maurizio Pietro Sella founded in 2007. In January 2016, Smartika launched a capital increase of 3.72 million euros that London-based Hamilton Ventures subscribed with TP&Partners, Luigi Cosenza and other investors. In 2018, Gruppo Sella acquired 85% of Smartika.
Leaf Space, an Italian space startup, raised a 3 million euros series A round that Whysol Investments led and RedSeed Ventures subscribed (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Jonata Puglia, Michele Messina and Giovanni Pandolfi founded Leaf Space in 2014. Since then, the company raised 7 million euros and in 2015 it joined I3P, the incubation programma of Turin Polytechnic University.
IL3X, Linknetic and Oral3D joined Call4Women, the call for businesswomen that B Heroes launched together with Endeavor Italia (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Erika Lamperti is the founder of IL3X, Ilaria Ricatti heads Linknetic and Martina Ferracane leads Oral3D. These startups will join an acceleration programme with B Heroes and after then they will go through an investor day. Endeavour Italia also selected Chitè Lingerie (whose founder is Chiara Marconi), Flority Fair (Giulia Giontella), Ghostwriter Ai (Ester Liquori), LEB World (Manuela delli Carri), M2TEST (Alessandra Nicolosi), Aileens Pharma (Sonia Longo Sormani). Italian equity crowdfunding platform BacktoWork24, a portfolio asset of Neva Finventures, is a co-investment partner of B Heroes.
