Italy’s proptech scaleup Casavo, a new generation platform for selling and buying homes in Europe, has secured a mega-round of Series D financing worth 400 million euros, including equity and debt, the largest ever round in the proptech sector in Europe (see here a previous article by BeBeez). The round includes an investment of 100 million euros of equity, led by Exor Seeds, already an investor in Casavo since last year, which was joined by both new investors, including Neva sgr (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Endeavor Catalyst, Hambro Perks, Fuse Ventures Partners and various angel investors such as Sébastien de Lafond (founder of MeilleursAgents); and by the main investors already in the capital of the scaleup, namely Greenoaks, Project A Ventures, 360 Capital, P101 sgr, Picus Capital and Bonsai Partners. As for the venture debt, worth 300 million euros, this time too it was structured as a securitization with Intesa Sanpaolo, Viola Credit and other major credit institutions which have signed the asset-backed partly-paid notes and which therefore are joining Goldman Sachs and D.E. Shaw & Co, underwriters of the notes of the two previous securitizations, conducted last year. We recall that, speaking at a webinar organized by BeBeez for Assofintech in partnership with Assoimmobiliare, last June, Casavo’s cfo, Giuseppe Caputo, had said that the scaleup would have raised as much as 150 million euros of new financing for supporting its instant buying activities in one year’s time (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Banca del Fucino, the head company of Gruppo Igea Banca, poured 5 million euros as anchor investor in Lumen Ventures, a fund that targets innovative scaleup startups and SMEs (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Lumen Ventures aims to raise 25 million to invest in 4 years in early-stage companies (70% Italian targets and 30% in international companies). Lumen already poured money in Macai (a digital supermaket), GenomeUP (biotech), Genie , and Insoore (corporate digital services). Rita Laura D’Ecclesia is the chairwoman of Lumen while Davide Fioranelli acts as ceo.
Oltre Impact joined the 40 million euros round that Fifteen, a French scaleup fo the bike sharing sector launched (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Eiffel Investment acted as lead investor. Benoit Yameundjeu is the ceo of Fifteen.
Boost Innovation, a fund of CDP Venture Capital, and Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana’s edutech Treccani Scuola subscribed a 7.6 million euros capital increase of Treccani Futura (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Grimaldi Studio Legale acted as counsel to Boost Innovation. Eversheds Sutherland assisted Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, Treccani Scuola and Treccani Futura, of which Massimo Lapucci is the chairman. Massimo Bray, Lorenzo Franchini and Fabio Di Gioia joined the board of directors of Treccani Futura. Cristina Pozzi replaced Andrea Dusi as ceo.
Italian Forever Bambù appointed Antonio Quintino Chieffo, the ceo of AC Finance, as cfo ahead of the launch of an ipo (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Emanuele Rissone founded Forever Bambù in 2014 for creating bamboo forests.
Italian Fondazione Social Venture Giordano dell’Amore (FSVGDA), the impact investing unit of Fondazione Cariplo, subscribed a 200k euros of capital increase of SharryLand, which will be now ready to develop sustainable development projects (see here a previous post by BeBeez). FSVGDA subscribed the capital increase through Impact4Art, an impact investing vehicle with resources of 1 million for supporting the Art and Culture sector launched in 2022. Luigi Alberton founded SharryLand in 2017. In 2020, the firm became a benefit company.
Zampylife, a startup that Edoardo Stoppa founded in 2021, raised 300k euros for supporting its development plans and launching its marketing campaign on Mediaset tv (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The startup sold a 3% for a post-money value of 10 million. In September, Zampylife will launch a capital increase of 1.5 million.
Techshop Primo announced the second closing of 37 million euros ahead of a fundraising hard cap of 50 milion (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The fund attracted the resources of CDP Venture Capital, Fondazione di Sardegna and other individual investors. Techshop Primo also announced the investment in Smartpricing, a SaaS solution provider for the hotel and leisure sector that raised 2 million and attracted the resources of Fabrick, Doorway, Gellify/Digitech Fund and Electa Ventures. Tommaso Centonze (coo), Luca Rodella (ceo) and Eugenio Bancaro (cto) founded Smartpricing in 2020.
Lipogems, an Italian regenerative medicine company, received a financing facility of 1.7 million euros from LIFTT, the Italian venture capital holding that Stefano Buono heads (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Lipogems developed a proprietary device for the osteoarthritis therapy. Camillo Ricordi and Carlo founded Lipogems in 2012.
Neva sgr (Intesa Sanpaolo group), invested in Israeli cybersecurity firms Cyberint and Coro (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sources said to BeBeez that Neva First acted as lead investor for a 40 million US Dollars series B round of Corynt which attracted the resources of Viola Growth and StageOne Ventures. The sources added that Neva First joined a series C round of 80 million round for which Coro also attracted the resources of Balderton Capital and Jerusalem Venture Partners.
United Ventures acted as lead investor for the 5 million euros series A round that Fido, a provider of artificial intelligence – based services of Identity Verification (See here a previous post by BeBeez). The company will invest the raised proceeds in developing its scoring algorithms and its organic growth. Marko Maras (ceo) and Paolo Mardegan founded Fido.
Italian proptech startup Roomless attracted 1.5 million euros from Club degli Investitori and Sensible Capital, a financial services firm that Silvia Rovere founded (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Roomless will invest the raised proceeds in developing its proprietary technology
The European Commission extended to 10 November 2023 the deadline for implementing the new European rules (see here a previous post by BeBeez). However, Alessandro Lerro, the chairman of AIEC (the Association of Italian Equity Crowdfunding platforms) and chairmand of the Assofintech’s scientific board, said that it is still urgent that the Italian Government decides as soon as possibile who will be the Authority in charge of giving European autorizations to platforms (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
