Financing to Italian SMEs and startups by fintech platforms in 2021 reached € 3.5 billion, up 60% from around 2.3 billion in 2020 (see here the BeBeez Report on Fintech Platforms 2020, available to subscribers to BeBeez News Premium and BeBeez Private Data) and a total of over € 8.6 billion since various platforms started activity between the end of 2014 and 2016. At the same time, we remind you that BeBeez Private Data also shows that the Italy-based or Italian-founded fintech startups and scaleups in 2021 have raised over 900 million euros from venture capital investors, (see here the BeBeez Fintech Venture Capital Report 2021), a figure that is already well over the 780.5 million euros raised throughout 2020 by all startups and scaleups, not only fintech, but from any sector (see here the BeBeez Venture Capital 2020 Report) .
On 2 March, Wednesday, Daniele Franco, the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, released the Green Book about the financial competition for encouraging investors to pour resources in Italian public and private capital markets (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Among other issues, the Green Book says that “together with the objective of promoting technological innovation applied to the financial sector thanks to the Fintech Committee and the regulatory sandbox, the need has emerged to equip Italy, like other European states (such as France and Germany), of a legislative framework that allows the issuance and circulation in digital form of financial instruments through technologies based on distributed ledgers (so-called distributed ledger technology – DLT), also in view of the future application of the EU regulation relating to the so-called DLT pilot regime”.
Volocopter, a German scaleup producer of electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts for urban air mobility (UAM), raised 35 million euros from Milan-listed Atlantia (see here a previous post by BeBeez) who joined other investors in a 170 million dollar round for the scaleup. The round was led by South Korea’s WP Investment, a strategic partner of LG Smart Farm, the corporate venture capital of LG. Volocopter launched the round on the ground of a pre-money value of 1.7 billion US Dollars. In 2021, Atlantia had invested 15 million euros in a previous round raised by the company that Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel founded in 2011 and since then attracted a total of 579 million euros from investors.
Test1, a provider of tech solutions for preventing ecologic disasters, raised 500k euros from a|impact – Avanzi Etica sicaf, a vehicle for impact investing that Etica launched (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company will invest the proceeds in its organic development. Alessandro Taini founded Test1. The company created FoamFlex200, a hydrophobic sponge that allows to recover up to 95% of the hydrocarbons spilled in water.
Ami Poké, an Italian chain of restaurants, raised 1.3 million euros through an equity crowdfunding on Mamacrowd on the ground of a pre-money value of 10 million euros and a post-money valuation of above 11 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company attracted the resources of AZ ELTIF – ALIcrowd, a venture capital vehicle that Milan-listed Azimut launched in 2020 for investing in crowdfunding campaigns. Ami Pokè will invest the raised proceeds in opening 26 new restaurants in Italy by 2024 and for generating sales of 19 million with an ebitda margin of 18%. Alessandro De Crescenzo and Riccardo Bellini founded Ami Poké in 2018. The company has sales of 2.8 million (+200% yoy). ALICrowd raised 25 million from investors and poured resources in 26 companies including PunchLab, WeTaxi , Fabbricatorino, L’Orto di Jack, Fessura, Kippy, The Perfect Cocktail, LireCento, MioAssicuratore, Pharmercure, Yocabé, Orapesce, Switcho, Dishcovery, Zappyrent, EasyPol, Deesup.
DazeTechnology, an Italian startup active in the field of electric cars recharging, attracted the resources of the European Innovation Council’s Equity Fund, 035 Investimenti and DayOne (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2020, DazeTechnology received the resources of Horizon 2020, a vehicle of the European Innovation Council Accelerator Pilot that invests tickets of 1 – 17 million euros.
Italian Tech Alliance (ITA – fka VC Hub Italia), an Italian association of venture capital investors, attracted a total of 51 investors, 136 startups and SMEs and 24 supporters (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The funds that are part of ITA manage assets for 1.3 billion euros and invested in 250 Italian startups. ITA‘s board appointed three new members for representing the startups: Marianna Chillau (ceo and co-founder of Transactionale), Gabriele Grecchi (ceo and co-founder of Silk Biomaterials) and Antonio Vecchio (ceo and co-founder of Karaoke One). Further directors are Enrico Pandian, Stefano Portu, Gianluca Dettori, Alessio Beverina, Fausto Boni, Lucia Faccio, and Roberto Magnifico.
