WeRoad, an Italian tourism scaleup, raised 18 million euros from H14 (the family office of Luigi Berlusconi, Eleonora Berlusconi and Barbara Berlusconi), the Grassi Family, the Rovati Family, and further investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company raised 36 million since its birth. Andrea D’Amico is the ceo of WeRoad.
Soplaya, a marketplace for liaises food producers with chefs, restaurants and retailers, raised one million euros in debt from Intesa SanPaolo and 11.5 million euros equity from Sinergia Venture Fund (Alkemia Capital – lead investor), P101, Azimut, and CDP Venture Capital (see here a previous post by BeBeez). LCA advised the company while McDermott assisted Sinergia Venture Fund. Mauro Germani is the CEO of Soplaya and ounded the company in 2018 with Gian Carlo Cesarin, Ivan Litsvinenka, and Davide Marchesi. Giacomo Picchetto is a partner of Alkemia Capital. Soplaya belongs to P101 (20.35%), Alkemia Capital Partners (9.37%), CDP Venture Capital sgr spa (9.18%), Cesarin (8.69%), Azimut (8.21%), Litsvinenka (8%), Marchesi (7.73%), and further shareholders with stakes of up to 5%. Soplaya has sales of 4.3 million, an ebitda of minus 3.8 million and equity of 4 million
Keyless, a London-based cybersecurity firm, attracted 6 million US Dollars from Rialto Ventures and other investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sift, a competitor which acquired the business in 2021, sold its stake. Andrea Carmignani (ceo), Giuseppe Ateniese, Paolo Gasti, and Fabian Eberle founded Keyless in 2019. The company will invest such proceeds in its European expansion.
Italian wine e-merchant Winelivery aims to raise 3.5 million euros of SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) facilities for expanding its network of winebars and acquiring a media company with which is already holding talks (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company already attracted 1.5 million from XEquity, B2B Gellify, and other shareholders. Francesco Magro and Andrea Antinori founded Winelivery in 2016.
Banca Valsabbina said it invested 2.5 million euros in Netfintech, the owner of Change Capital, for increasing further its 9% of the business (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Francesco Brami (ceo) and Tiziano Cetarini founded Change Capital-Netfintech in 2019. The company has a turnover of 2.2 million, an ebitda of 0.667 million and net cash of 0.321 million.
RISE Technology, an Italian high tech fompany, raised seed resources for 1.5 millions euros from Tech4Planet (part of CDP Venture Capital and MITO Technology) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). RISE Technology developed its proprietary technology iSPLASH which received a 2.5 million grant from EIC Accelerator first cut-off 2022. The company will invest all these proceeds in its organic development. Marco Balucani (ceo) and Roberto Pagliucci (Innovation Manager) are the founders or RISE.
Milan-listed Digital Magics is going to launch Step Venture, a vehicle for investing in fintech, insurtech, proptech, regtech, token, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and B2B software (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Michele Novelli, a partner of the Milan-listed holding, said to BeBeez that the vehicle has a fundraising target of 60-80 million euros, a firm that he declined to disclose will manage it and will not co-invest in all deals of Digital Magics. Further members of Step Venture’s team will be Roberto Montandon, Maria Imbesi and Gennaro Tesone.
BlackSheep MadTech Fund closed its 50 million euros fundraising earlier than scheduled, co-founder and managing partner Umberto Bottesini said to BeBeez (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
On 30 November and 1 December, Thursday and Friday, Milan’s Palazzo Lombardia hosted a competition for rewarding 71 startups at the 21st National Innovation Prize (PNI) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The companies that have gone through the selections of regional Start Cups, a competition of PNICube, the Italian association of incubators. Lombardy Region, Milano-Bicocca University, Milan Polytechnic, Bocconi University, Milan State University, MUSA (Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action), Gruppo Iren, Nobento-iVision, Gilead, and AlmavivA are the partners of PNI 2023 that will reward with a 25,000 euros award 4 companies in the sectors of Cleantech & Energy (Iren), ICT (Almaviva), Industrial (Nobento-iVision), Life Sciences-MEDTech (Gilead Science). Focoos Ai (Start Cup Piemonte-Valle D’Aosta) received the 0.025 million award for the ICT and new media sector; Preinvel (Start Cup Puglia) for the Industrial sector, Foreverland (Start Cup Puglia) for Iren Cleantech & Energy; and Livgemini (Start Cup Lazio) for Life Sciences-Medtech (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Arzanya, Etrash and Ponics are three of the five winners of BCC Innovation Festival that started on 15 June, Thursday (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The startups met in Dentons Milan office with the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, the Israel-Italy Chamber of Commerce, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, and British Chamber of Commerce for Italy for discussing their internationalization perspectives. Arzanya developed a drug discovery platform with the support of artificial intelligence and also launched a fundraising round without disclosing the target. Etrash (fka H-Farm) is a waste management company that launched a pre-seed round of 0.25 million euros to invest in shorten the time to market for its smart bins. Ponics is a hydroponic agricolture firm that aims to raise 0.85 million.
