Enthera Pharmaceuticals, an Italian biotech company, increased by a further 7 million euros the series A round of 28 millions that launched in July 2020 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Enthera raised 35 million from Roche Venture Fund, the corporate investment vehicle of Swiss pharma giant Roche, Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie Ventures, the fund of Nyse-listed AbbVie, Indaco, a pool of investors that Banor sim and Banca Profilo grouped. Carole Nuechterlein, a director of Roche Venture Fund, joined the board of Enthera. The company will invest these resources in expanding further its pipeline. Giovanni Amabile and Silvano Spinelli are the ceo and chairman of Enthera.
Invitalia poured 81 million euros in ReiThera, which will invest 69.3 million of this facility in its R&D and the production of an anti-Covid vaccine and 11.7 million in growing the production capacity of its plant in Rome area (See here a previous post by BeBeez). The investment includes 41.2 million of non-repayable funds and subsidized facilities of 7.8 million. Invitalia also acquired 27% of ReiThera through a capital increase .
At the end of 2020, Milan-listed incubator Digital Magics and Cdp Venture Capital – Fondo Nazionale Innovazione invested 8.6 million euros in 8 startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The targets are already part of the portfolio of Digital Magics, whose 14 assets raised a total of 12.1 million. Buzzoole, the Italian platform for influencer marketing, raised 5 million euros in November 2020 and attracted the resources of Cdp Venture Capital, Vertis and StarTip (part of Milan-listed investment company Tamburi Investment Partners). The companies that attracted the resources of the last rounds are Axieme (insurtech), Bikeroom (online sale of high-end bikes), Crea Assicurazioni, a Machine Learning-based insurer, ELI WMS, a B2B provider of Warehouse Management Systems, SurgiQ (health-tech), Volumeet (social network), and Xoko which implements digital products for the tourism and leisure sectors.
Crea, an insurtech startup, raised 2 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Step, an Italian provider of solutions and services for improving the efficiency of the sale of banking and insurance products, acted as lead investor. Cdp Venture Capital poured 0.3 million. Crea attracted further resources from its shareholders Digital Magics, Velocity Technology EIS Fund, Metrica and Roberto Montandon.
Cdp Venture Capital invested 800k euros through programme in four startups that the accelerator The Qube supported (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Seed per il Sud programme, Cdp Venture Capital and The Qube, poured a total of 1.3 million euros in Connexa Insurtech, Memento, a producer of innovative toys, Bionit Labs, a provider of robotics solutions for the orthopaedic sector, and Cervellotik, a publisher of software for the training and education sector.
Enpaia, the pension fund of Italian farmers, invested one million euros in Progress Tech Transfer (PTT), a fund for the environmental sustainability whose advisor is MITO Technology (See here a previous post by BeBeez). PTT was born in January 2019 and attracted resources of 40 million euros from the European Investment Fund (EIF), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and Innovfin Equity,the European programma for innovative companies. Progress Tech Transfer already invested in 10 companies: MAT3D, a joint spin-off of the Universities of Modena e Reggio Emilia and of Parma that develops and produces high-performance polymers for 3D printing; HiQ-Nano, a producer of nanoparticles matierials for several sectors; WaterView, an Italian startup collectd meteorological data; Respectlife, a startup for the production of high-tech fabrics that Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo di Pavia incubated; Blubrake, a scale-up which provides e-bikes with an innovative technology for tyres; Finapp, a spin off of Padua University for monitoring the quantity of water that the soil absorbed; A proof-of-concept of Padua University’s department of industrial engineering; A proof-of-concept del University’s department of industrial engineering; HT Material Science, uno sviluppatore pionieristico irlandese di prodotti di trasferimento di calore nanotecnologici; DeepTrace Technologies, a spin-off of Pavia University that provides Artificial Intelligence-based medical imaging solutions for diagnosis and prognosis.
Pellegrini acquired the majority of Mymenu, a food delivery startup that is born out of the integration of Mymenu with Sgnam and BacchetteForchette (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The founders Edoardo Tribuzio, Giovanni Cavallo and Lorenzo Lelli sold their stakes in Mymenu. Valentina Pellegrini and Tribuzio will be the company’s chairwoman and ceo.
In 2020, Italian crowdfunding campaigns (equity, lending, reward and donation) raised more than 333 million euros, said a report of Starteed, an Italian crowd-company (see here a previous post by BeBeez). CrowdfundingBuzz, whose publisher is EdiBeez, the same as BeBeez, says that in 2020 Italian equity crowdfunding platforms alone in 2020 raised 103 million in 159 campaigns.
SportTech Golee raised a total of 1.3 million euros, of which 500k euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on BacktoWork that started in November 2020 and 0.8 million from the programmes Smart & Start of Invitalia and Credito d’Imposta Ricerca & Sviluppo (See here a previous post by BeBeez).In November 2019, Golee raised 0.85 million from Maider, Carlo Cozza, Daniele Alberti, and Stiven Muccioli. In September 2018, Golee raised 0.15 million. Muccioli founded Golee in 2019 together with Tommaso Guerra, Daniele Roselli and Felice Biancardi and the support of Wylab, Hype, Trentino Sviluppo, and SpeedMiUp, the incubator of Bocconi University. The company will invest these last proceeds in its organic development.
Gruppo Mak raised 3 million euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on Walliance for its Trento-based real estate development project via Grazioli (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The project may last 18 months and have a ROI of 17.25% or 11.5% annualy.
Datrix, an Italian developer of Artificial Intelligence-based technology and software solutions for the Marketing & Sales sector, received two long-term financing facilities from UBI Banca and Banco BPM (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Datrix, whose ceo is Fabrizio Milano d’Aragona, is born at the end of 2018 out of the integration of Finscience with 3rd Place. The company concluded a round launched in 2020, through which it attracted a 2.3 million euros equity investment from United Ventures, the family office of Nerio Alessandri and other firms. Datrix will invest the raised proceeds in increasing its financial efficiency and M&A transactions. Datrix has sales of 7.3 millions.
Italy’s business information firm CRIF invested in we.trade, which it previously signed a strategic alliance with (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The platform we.trade developed a digital platform based on Linux Hyperledger Fabric and IBM Blockchain and belongs to IBM, CRIF, CaixaBank, Deutsche Bank, Erste Group, HSBC, KBC, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Sociéte Générale, UBS, and UniCredit. ČSOB, Komerční Banka and Česká Spořitelna hold the licence for the business in Czech Republic. Crif has sales in the region of 560 million euros, an ebitda of 86.1 million and a net debt of 146.3 million.
Spesafacile, a shopping delivery and co-fridges company, raised 450k euros in equity and debt from Banco Bpm (a 350k euro credit line with the warranty of Medio Credito Centrale) and two industrial players (100k euros) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company will invest such resources in 8 new hires by 1H21 and in its organic growth.
Maiora Solutions, a developer of AI solutions and a provider of data analysis services, raised 480k euros from Smart&Start, the programme that Invitalia launched for supporting innovative startups (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Andrea Torassa and Emilio Zunino founded Maiora Solutions in 2017. The company has sales of 26.76 million euros and an ebitda of minus 0.606 million.
AideXa, the challenging bank for MSMEs that Roberto Nicastro and Federico Sforza founded, signed a partnership with CRIF, a provider of services for credit and business information and of open banking solutions (see here a previous post by BeBeez). AideXa will implement CRIF’s solutions for smart onboarding and digital credit risk assessment.
Sia, a provider of payment infrastructures whose controlling stake belongs to Cdp Equity, signed a partnership with fintech WizKey for negotiating credits through a blockchain and DLT technology (See here a previous post by BeBeez). The partnership aims to provide market participants with a tool for improving the efficiency, liquidity and transparency of the secondary market for the credit sector and the securitizations of Npls. Marco Pagani (ceo) and Roberto Ghio (chairman) founded Milan-based WizKey, which i salso part of the Testing and Certification Working Group of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). Sia has sales of 733.2 million euros, an ebitda of 257.9 million, an adjusted ebitda of 257.7 million, and net profits of 95.6 million.
Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Cariplo, Unioncamere Lombardia, and Cariplo Factory launched the Get it! ICC (for cultural and creative businesses) call as part of InnovaMusei programme (see here a previous post by BeBeez). InnovaMusei aims to support Lombardy Museums for innovating their business model. The deadline for joining the call is 29 March 2021. The startups that have ended their incubation process will join the match-making day by by July 2021. Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore may pour resources for up to 0.2 million euros in cultural and creative companies.
On 18 February 2021, Thursday, will expire the application deadline for the Startup Builder, a 12 weeks online incubation programme of Startup Geeks (SG), the community of Italian startuppers (See here a previous post by BeBeez). SG will assess the applications on the ground of 4 key drivers: the problem that the startup aims to solve, the market segments it aims to target, the solution proposal and the team. Italian fintech Soisy, a marketplace for financing e-commerce buys, will provide facilities for paying in up to 60 instalments the incubation process. Alessio Boceda and Giulia D’Amato founded SG in January 2019. In June2020, the company raised 0.17 million from Francesco Inguscio, Andrea Dusi, Enrico Pandian, and Roberto Sfoglietta.
