Involve Space, an Italian startup for stratospheric balloons, fetched a seed financing of 2.5 million euros (0.5 million in convertible loan) that Earlybird Venture Capital, a German fund with 2.5 billion of assets under management, led (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company also attracted the resources of Takeoff – CDP Venture Capital, Unicredit, Fondazione CRT, Plug and Play, and TLI Space – Cenciarini & Co. Alastair Westgarth joined the board of directors of Involve Space of which are already part Jonathan Polotto (ceo and founder), Claudio Piazzai (coo and founder). The Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli is part of Involve Space advisory board. Studio Del Prato assisted the company. Earlybird retained RPLT RP legalitax. TLI hired Alpeggiani Avvocati Associati.
Skillvue (fka Algo AI), a provider of HR services, raised pre-seed resources of 2.5 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Italian Founders Fund (IFF), a fund that Lorenzo Franzi heads, led the round. The company also attracted the resources of 14Peaks Capital, Orbita Verticale, Ithaca 3, Kfund, Koinos Capital, and several business angels. Skillvue retained Pavia e Ansaldo while Orrick assisted the investors. Nicolò Mazzocchi and Simone Patera founded Skillvue in 2021.
Renewcast, the developer of a proprietary application for short and medium/long-term (from one hour to 15 days) forecasting of wind trends and intensity close to wind turbines, raised a 2 million euros SAFE/CLA (Simple Agreement for Future Equity/ Convertible Loan Agreement) facility from South Western Power Group (SWPG), part of MMR Group, and CDP Venture Capital‘s Green Transition Fund (GTF – a vehicle that allocates the resources of NextGeneration EU programme) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sources said to BeBeez that SWPG invested 0.995 million and GTF less than one million. Fabio Nicolò and Ugo Mattoni founded Renewcast in 2020. Since its foundation, the company raised resources worth in the region of 3 million
A otto mesi di distanza dalla chiusura del round pre-seed da 500 mila euro (si veda altro articolo di BeBeez), Lexroom.ai, an Italian AI-based legaltech startup, signed a partnership with Italian law firm Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici (GPBL) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Martina Domenicali, Andrea Lonza and Paolo Fois founded Lexroom.ai in 2023 with the support of Vento Ventures, part of Exor.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Italian venture capital fund LIFTT launched LIFTT EuroInvest (LEI), a vehicle in which they poured 100 million euros for investing in startups operating in the fields of life sciences, cybersecurity, deeptech, and cleantech (see here a previous post by BeBeez). LEI aims to close 20-30 co-investment deals in startups and SMEs. On 9 September, Monday, Stefano Buono, the chairman of LIFTT, and Gelsomina Vigliotti, vicepresident of EIB, announced such a partnership.
Italian Master Startup Award (IMSA) 2024, an Italian prize that rewards startups with at least two years of activity that are part of the network PNICube for which Turin Polytechnic University accelerator I3P acts as a partner, shortlisted eleven companies ahead of announcing the winner on 25 September, Wednesday (see here a previous post by BeBeez). IMSA received the financing of Piedmont Region, European Social Fund Plus, Made in Italy Ministry, Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), Embassy of Italy to the Vatican, Invitalia, Osif Rome University Tor Vergata, EIT Digital, Business France, and GammaDonna. The winner will get 0.01 million euros. The shortlisted firms are:
- ALBA Robot (coming from Start Cup Piedmont – Aosta Valley, Industrial) an indoor micromobility company born in 2019.
- ALTO Robotics (Genoa – Filse Incubator, Industrial).
- Bluebiloba (a spin-off of Florence University, Cleantech & Energy) which provides tech services for the sustainable management of forests and green areas.
- DGTwin (Naples National Research Centre, ICT) a provider of services for sustainable energy based on digital twin technology.
- E-Lectra (Start Cup Lazio, Industrial) a provider of solutions for the e-transport sector.
- Helios Domotics – LIT (Start Cup Lazio, Cleantech & Energy) a startup with women governance that developed monitoring systems for domestic energy consumptions.
- Hemera (Verona and Milan Universities, Life sciences and MED-Tech), the owner of REMaST, a cell therapy to regenerate neural tissue for the treatment of spinal cord injuries.
- Heremos (Start Cup Lazio, Life sciences and MED-Tech), a provider of wearables for distance monitoring patiends.
- K3RX (Faenza National Research Centre, Industrial), a producer of innovative materials.
- LEB WORLD (Start Cup Apulia, Industrial), a producer of sustainable cosmetics.
- Young Platform (Start Cup Piedmont – Aosta Valley, ICT), a provider of services for cryptocurrencies.
