Sofinnova Partners’ fund Sofinnova Telethon poured 3.5 million euros in NanoPhoria, an Italian biotech that is developing a versatile and non-viral platform for the dosage of inorganic nanoparticles- based drugus (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Nanophoria is a spinoff of CNR, an Italian Government-owned research centre. Daniele Catalucci, Michele Iafisco, Alessio Alogna, and ceo Claudio De Luca founded the company. Sofinnova Telethon Fund is an early-stage vehicle for investing in Italy in drug and therapies that can prevent and cure rare genetic diseases that Sofinnova launched in 2018. Telethon Foundation is one of its advisors. Apollo Global Management has acquired a 20% stake in Sofinnova Partners and pledged to invest up to one billion euros in Sofinnova’s funds (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Yapily, a British open banking platform that former Goldman Sachs Italian banker Stefano Vaccino founded in 2017, signed with German credit information agency SCHUFA a commitment for acquiring competitor finAPI (see here a previous post by BeBeez). After such a transaction, Yapily will double its clientes database and achieve a leadership position in the UK and Germany. Tanja Birkholz is the ceo of SCHUFA. In July 2021, Yapily attracted 51 million US Dollars from lead investor Sapphire Ventures, Lakestar, HV Capital and Latitude. In April 2020, the company attracted 13 million from Lakestar, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and LocalGlobe. In May 2019, Yapily raised a seed facility of 5.4 million from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, LocalGlobe and business angels Taavet Hinrikus, Ott Kaukver, Frank Strauss, Roberto Nicastro, Giovanni Daprà , and H14 (the family office of sibilings Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi Berlusconi). In November 2017, Yapily raised pre-seed resources from Ithaca Investments, the family office of Luigi Berlusconi that Giorgio Valaguzza, a former banker of  JP Morgan and Mediolanum, heads.
Classiq, an Israeli quantum computing company, raised 3 million US Dollars from Neva First, a fund managed by Italy’s Neva sgr (owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center) and from HSBC and NTT Finance, part of Japanese tlc NTT (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Earlier in February, Classiq raised 33 million from Hewlett Packard Pathfinder (the corporate venture capital of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Phoenix), Spike Ventures (an investment group of Stanford University’s alumni), Samsung NEXT (the corporate venture capital of Samsung), and Lip-Bu Tane, a managing partner of Square Wave Ventures. Since 2020, Neva First has invested 67 million euros out of its 250 million resources.
Tulou, an urban regeneration real estate startup, attracted 5.5 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Andrea Colombo (ceo), Vittorio Mauri, Santo Bellistri, and Linda Maroli founded Toulou. The company attracted the resources of PFC (the family office of the Marzotto Family), Wellness Holding (Nerio Alessandri), Storm, Ithaca Investments (the family office of Luigi Berlusconi that former JP Morgan and Mediolanum banker Giorgio Valaguzza heads), Fidim, Ghilo (Angelomario Moratti), Gellify, Azimut Digitech Fund, and Invictus Capital.
Spanish scale-up Colvin, an online retailer of flowers that attracted the resources of Italian venture capital investors, acquired Italian B2B competitor Bloovery which raised 265k euros between 2017 and 2020 through three equity crowdfunding campaigns onCrowdfundme, Opstart and Mamacrowd (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2020, Bloovery generated sales of 275k euros and attracted 147k euros after having launched on Mamacrowd an equity crowdfunding campaign for raising 100-300k euros on the ground of a pre-money value of 2 millions. LVenture Group also poured resources in Bloovery which joined the Luiss EnLabs programme. LVenture and the crowd investors in all three campaigns will sell their stakes to Colvin. Milan-listed LVenture posted a 2x return on its investment. Simone Guzzetti (ceo), Michele Dondi (cmo) and a group of former IT developers of Italian fashion e-retailer Yoox founded Bloovery in 2016. Sergi Bastardas, Andrés Cester and Marc Olmedillo founded Colvin in 2016 and since then raised 70 million. In 2020 the company generated sales of 15 million. In 2021, Colvin raised 45 million from P101, the corporate venture capital of Milan-listed Mediaset, Capagro, and Eurazeo. In 2020 Colvin raised 14 million from Samaipata,Milano Investment Partners (MIP), P102, a vehicle of P101, and ITA500, a fund of Azimut Libera Impresa that P101 managed and that carries on coinvestments with P102.
MBE Worldwide, the Italian provider of logistic services with the brand MailBoxes Etc., acquired Italian startup GEL Proximity, a platform for the last mile services (see here a previous post by BeBeez). MBE belongs to Graziano Fiorelli (60%) and Oaktree Capital Management (40%). In 2020, Damiano Frosi, Lorenzo Maggioni and Valerio Bevilacqua founded GEL a spin-off of Milan Polytechnic University that received the incubation support of PoliHub. MBE Worldwide has sales of above one billion euros.
On 12 May, Thursday, Italy’s benefit company Finedi Asset Management, the owner of the newsstands chain Quotidiana, launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd for a pre-money value of 5.8 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Finedi aims to raise 350k-one million euros for a 6.1 – 6.8 million post-money value. Last February Finedi Asset Management had raised resources from the Sì – Social Impact Fund, managed by Sefea Impact sgr. At the time of the investment by Fondo Sì, Quotidiana was valued at almost 5 million euros. Quotidiana will invest the raised proceeds in acquiring 40 newsstands in the Milan area, hiring new resources, installing electric charging points in kiosks, and further developing its management software for scaling the business in other cities. Finedi’s mission is the rediscovery and enhancement of newsstands as cultural and social places in the cities. Finedi is part of the MilanoCard Group, born in 2010 in Milan with the creation and management of the homonymous tourist card, the first for the city of Milan. Over time it has then expanded its business by entering the edutainment sector.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) released the final version of Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for equity crowdfunding platforms. It specified the information that these financial services providers may share with investors regarding the credit rating and pricing of the campaigns (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Such RTS that EBA drafted with European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) requires the platforms to specify the elements in the prospectus for investors.
F&B Investment, the owner of the restaurant brand I Love Pokè, will launch between 18 and 19 May, Wednesday and Thursday, Almaki al Mapic Italy 2022, a casual fast food format for Peruvian and Japanese food (see here a previous post by BeBeez). F&B Investment will open the first store of Almaki in the food court of the shopping mall Fiordaliso di Rozzano in the Milan area. In 2021, I Love Pokè attracted 14 million euros from Francesco Manzi and generated sales of 40 million with an above 20% ebitda margin. Michael Nazir Lewis and his wife Rana Edwards are the founders of F&B.
