Cutiss, a Swiss biotech scaleup, launched a 40 million euros series C financing round for developing its proprietary technology denovoCast and sell the products denovoSkin and Viticell (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Martin Meuli, chairman, and Daniela Marino, ceo, founded the company that raised 67 million CHF since its birth and also attracted the resources of Italian entrepreneur Giammaria Giuliani, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Wyss Foundation, Yellowstone Holding, and Lichtsteiner Foundation. Sources said to BeBeez that Giuliani and an US-based family office that is receiving assistance from Shiloh Advisors will act as anchor investors and pour 12 million euros in this round.
Evja, an Italian agritech startup, raised pre-Series A resources worth 4.2 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company attracted the resources of CDP Venture Capital, SEFEA Impact and Startupbootcamp Foodtech which retained Linklaters as advisors. One Partner and Hilex assisted Evja, a company that Davide Parisi, Antonio Affinito and Paolo Iasevoli founded in 2015. The startup received the incubation support from Start-life, the accelerator of Dutch Wageningen University in 2018 and later attracted the resources of BayWa Venture, the corporate venture capital of the eponymous German company, and of RWA Invest, part of RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria. These investors purchased 2.5% each of the business that in 2016 received the Acceleration Programme award of Agro Innovation Lab, a joint venture that BayWa signed with RWA. In 2016, Evja joined Startupbootcamp Foodtech, a Rome-based accelerator for foodtech firms.
Italian biotech Cellply raised 3.6 million euros from lead investor Recomec, LIFTT and Schia Ventures (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Massimo Bocchi (ceo) and Roberto Guerrieri founded the company that said it aims to raise a further 14 million by the end of 1Q24. Cellply raised a total of 11 million since its birth and attracted the resources of IAG, META Zernike Ventures (fka Zernike Meta Ventures), Atlante Seed (a vehicle that Indaco Ventures manages), Rearden, and other ivnestors. Emiliano Spagnolo is the ceo of the company that aims to ivnest such proceeds in R&D and its US expansion through its branch Cellply North America.
BeSafe Group, an Italian insurtech, said it raised 3 million euros from PranaVentures SICAF, Azimut Digitech Fund (a vehicle that Azimut Libera Impresa manages with the aadvisory support of FNDX), CDP Venture Capital, and strategic business angels (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Alessandro Bartolucci, Francesco Brusco and Wanny Miarelli founded BeSafe Group whcih will invest the raised proceeds in its organic growth and proprietary technology.
IH1, the investment holding of the Italian startup studio Mamazen, aims to launch a campaign on CrowdFundMe for raising 0.1 – 1 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Since its foundation in 20121, the business raised 4.5 million. The company aims to raise 3 million to invest in Mamazen and 7 million in the startups of the studio. Farhad Alessandro Mohammadi founded the company. Alessandro Mina and Alexandre Campra are further directors of IH1.
BlackSheep MadTech Fund, part of Eureka! Venture, is close to announcing its 11th investment since its foundation in 2021 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The fund may close a further two deals by the end of December 2023 ahead of a target of 15 portfolio companies, Umberto Bottesini, co-founder and managing partner of BlackSheep said to BeBeez.
In 1Q23, Italian fintech ClubDealOnline, a private crowdfunding platform that received the operational authorization from Italian stockmarket regulator Consob and that ClubDeal manages, generated sales of 0.354 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
CDP Venture Capital appointed Agostino Scornajenchi as ceo and Anna Lambiase as chairwoman (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The firm also appointed as directors Enrico Canu, Manuela Sabbatini, Lorenzo Maternini, Stefano Cuzzilla, Valeria Bucci, Stefano Massari, and Valentina Milani.
Roberto Marsella received the 2023 Business Angel Award from Club degli Investitori (see here a previous post by BeBeez). KPMG, UniCredit, UniCredit StartLab, and Italian Tech Alliance sponsored the ceremony award. Mauro Ferrari chaired the jurors panel. Marco De Guzzis, Elena Paola Lanati and Silvia Pugi joined the final round of the award. In the last 10 years, Marsella, Head of Private Assets at Generali Investments Partners, closed 46 investments and carried on 12 exits, with 3 IPOs. Dove Vivo, Caracol, ReeVo, Philogen, Deus Technology, Bandyer, Woom Italia, and Talent Garden are part of this list.
Runa Capital, a venture investor that Ilya Zubarev and Dmitry Chikhachev founded and head, opened a bureau in Milan for which appointed Sapienza University and Insead Alumnus Francesco Ricciuti as director (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Runa Capital targets deep tech and fintech startups. Between 2010 and 2022, the fund raised more than 450 million euros. Sources said to BeBeez that the firm is raising resources for another fund. Ricciuti said to BeBeez that Runa aims to invest mainly in Series A round. Nginx, MariaDB, Zopa, Brainly, DrChrono, Smava, and Mambu are some of Runa’s portfolio companies. Zubarev and Chikhachev founded Acronis (a company that attracted BlackRock resources on the ground of an enterprise value of 3.5 billion US Dollars), Parallels (a business that Corel acquired), Odin (attracted the offer of Ingram Micro), and Acumatica (EQT Partners both it).
