Bending Spoons, a mobile app developer, acquired Issuu, an international digital publishing platform based in Palo Alto, California. The value of the transaction is in the region of 500 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Martin Ferro and Mikkel Jensen founded Issu in 2006 in Denmark and later relocated in USA. The company previously attracted equity investments from Heartcore Ventures and KDDI and in 2021 raised 31 million usd in venture debt from Capital IP Partners. Goodwin Procter and Lightning Partners advised Issuu for such a sale. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Kromann Reumert, Pérez-Llorca and EY Advisory assisted Bending Spoons. Joe Hyrkin is the ceo of Issuu. Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli and Luca Querella are the founders of Bending Spoons.
illuminem, a platform for sustainability information and data that Andrea Gori founded and that the Italian Ministry of the Environment supports, closed its first investment round in Italy worth 2 million euros on the ground of a valuation of 12 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Gori said to BeBeez that more than 20 investors joined this round. Sources said to BeBeez that illuminem attracted the resources of Techstars, Blackwood Venture, Fortino Capital, Genesis Venture, Andrea Maggiani, Renat Albert Heuberger, Marco Hirsbrunner, Dubai Sustainable Impact, Eden Ventures, Traent, MPS, Vesta Ventures, and other investors. Osborne Clarke advised illuminem. Nicolas Vecchioli (Chief Growth Officer), Markos Chrysikopoulos (Chief Product Officer) and Maria Vittoria Bassetto (Chief Legal Officer) are other senior executives of the firm.
Cubbit, a geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, announced the closing of a new 12.5 million usd funding round that it will invest in its expansion into Europe (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In June 2023, Cubbit founders Stefano Onofri, Marco Moschettini, Alessandro Cillario, and Lorenzo Posani said to BeBeez that they were going seek new funding. LocalGlobe and ETF Partners were the new round leaders. New investors also include Verve Ventures, 2100 Ventures, Hydra (Datalogic‘s Milan-listed holding company), Growth Engine, Eurenergia, Moonstone, Azimut Libera Impresa sgr – Azimut Digitech Fund (backed by FNDX), CDP Venture Capital, Primo Ventures, Fabio Fregi, Joe Zadeh and Duccio Vitali. Growth Capital advised Cubbit in fundraising activities.
Rancilio Cube SICAF raised 50 million euros and attracted the resources of Mais, Isabella Seragnoli‘s family office (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Studio Annunziata & Conso, Studio Tremonti Romagnoli Piccardi e Associati, and Studio Zabban, Notari and Rampolla handled the transaction. Rancilio Cube SICAF is an aggregator of exclusive international venture capital experience and targets professional investors and family offices.
Primo Climate (part of Primo Ventures), a new venture capital fund that will invest in early stage startups operating in the climate tech sector to accelerate the ecological transition, announced its first 40 million euros closing (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The final funding target is 60 million. CDP Venture Capital underwrote the raising on behalf of the VenturItaly fund of funds and the Green Transition Fund – PNRR, which uses resources that the EU allocates through the NextGeneration EU initiative. Gianluca Dettori is the chairman of Primo Ventures
Huma Therapeutics Limited (HTL), a British artificial intelligence company in the healthcare sector, raised 80 million usd (73.4 million euros) through a Series D round that HAT, a fund that Ignazio Castiglioni and Nino Attanasio lead, joined (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Huma raised 322.6 million (296.1 million) since January 2016. HSBC Bank advised Huma.
