Stefania Peveraro, the chief editor of BeBeez, has moderated the 12 November panel that took place at Dartmouth House in Mayfair on the side-lines of the fourth edition of London’s Made in Italy 2.0.2.0 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Italian-English incubator iStarter, whose ceo is Simone Cimminelli, launched the event and eight Italian scaleups that are looking for funding met more than 60 international venture capital funds such as Accel, Sweet Capital, Idinvest, Frog Capital, Balterdon, Nauta Capital. The following eight startups have already raised 17 million euros and set a target of above 60 million:
- App Quality, a platform for launching bug-free B2C testing campaigns that Luca Manara, Edoardo Vannutelli, and Filippo Renga founded, and that in October 2017 raised 0.4 million from Italian Angels for Growth, Club degli Investitori, Club Italia Investimenti 2, and Digital360
- Beaconforce, a Saas platform that provides tools for supporting HR. Luca Rosetti founded the company in San Franciso and funds from Sequitur Capital in June 2019 and from Gellify in February 2018
- Entando, a California-based platform that has Italian co-founders and provides cloud-native applications for corporates. At the end of October Vertis and Gellify poured resources in the business
- InVRsion, provides VR applications for online commerce and raised 0.4 million from Italian Angels for Growth in May 2019.
- RocketBaby, a digital native brand for childhood premium items with an annual growth of 100% that aims to expand abroad its activities.
- Soul-K (fka Soul Kitchen), a B2B food-tech scaleup and a provider of management tools for the HO.RE.CA.and big distribution sectors that in early June 2019 raised a bridge round of 1.6 million from Innogest and Tan Food, who in February 2018 poured 2 million in the business.
- Swanscan, the first Italian cybersecurity firm to have its own platform for cybersecurity testing and cybersecurity research unit. ECSO (European Cyber Security Organisation) awarded the company as excellence. In May 2016, Swascan raised 0.6 million from Key Capital who now has a 20% stake.
- Treedom, a Florence-based website that allows companies and individuals to plant trees, Treedom opened bureaus in Germany and the UK and in April 2017 raised 2.45 million from Ersel, Antonello Manuli Holding, Rancilio Cube, U-Start Club, Sella Ventures, and other private investors
On 1 November, Friday, the real estate equity crowdfunding platform Concrete scored its fundraising peak with an amount of 1.54 million euros for the campaign of Milan project Terminal Tower (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The project reached a 308% overfunding ahead of its least target of 0.5 million (upper target of 1.6 million). Terminal Tower required an investment ticket of at least 5,000 euros with an expected 12% Irr. In mid-October 2019, Banco Bpm agreed a 7 years mortgage for 7.5 million. Lorenzo Pedotti is the ceo of Concrete, who will launch further projects in 2019 early 2020. Terminal Tower has been the fifth consecutive campaign that succesfully closed on Concrete, which in turn allowed to raise a total amount of 5.79 million. Previous campaigns have been: Le Dimore in partnership with Immobiliare Percassi (1 million); ELLE Building in partnership with Borgosesia (1.5 million); Gracchi7 (1 million); Torre Milano in partnership with Impresa Rusconi (0.75 million)
VIS (Valore in Sanità) raised one million euros from Barcamper Ventures and Barcamper Ventures Lazio (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company was born two years ago with the support of Smart&Start of Invitalia. Stefano Ronchi is the ceo of VIS who provides health care services for check-ups and corporate welfare with Viscard. Barcamper Ventures Lazio has the Regione Lazio as the sole investor, it has resources of 8 million and in June 2019 invested in Codemotion, an IT company with clients like Cisco, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle.
UBI Global World Rankings of Business Incubators and Accelerators 2019 – 2020 ranked I3P, the business incubator of Turin Polytechnic Univerity, as the world best incubator with government support out of 364 programmes in 78 countries (see here a previous post by BeBeez). I3P received the award on 6 November, Wednesday, at the World Incubation Summit 2019 of the Qatar Development Bank in Doha. Giuseppe Scellato is the chairman of I3P. In early 2019, the start-ups that received support from I3P raised seed and early capital for 13 million euros and reached an aggregate post-money value of 90 million. PoliHub, the innovation district of Turin Polytechnic University, joined the top-5 of University incubators and supported the Italian fintech FinDynamic, a dynamic discounting company. Enrico Viganò, the company’s founder, said to BeBeez that PoliHub provides very good networking opportunities. NAStartUp, based in Naples, received the award as one of the 3 top challengers in Europe, as it produced an impact on the businesses it supported which has been outstanding compared to its peers. Antonio Prigiobbo, Antonio Savarese, Massimo Morgante (CEO of Volumeet), Gianluca Manca (CEO of Intertwine) Giovanna D’Urso, and Roberta Madonna are the leaders of NAstartup.
Biovalley Investments Partner, an investor in innovative startups operating in the sectors of BioHighTech (BioMed, Biotech, BioICT) and Lifescience, launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on CrowdFundMe (see here a previous post by BeBeez). BIP set a fundraising target of at least 0.5 million euros for a 4.8% stake with an upper target of 2.4 million and an investment ticket of at least 20,000 euros on the ground of a pre-money value of 10 million. The company will invest the proceeds in its organic development in view of a listing on Milan Aim. Diego Bravar founded BIP and previously created Althea (fka TBS Group), an Italian biomedical company that Permira delisted in August 2017 with a public offer of 100 million. Giovanni Loser is the ceo of BIP who has a share capital of 6.6 million and a portfolio of 11 companies that generate an aggregate turnover of 11 million (+20% yoy).
Soisy, a fintech company for instalment payments on e-commerce platforms born in 2016, launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on 200Crowd and raised more than 1 million euros in just three hours (+165% overfunding) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Soisy launched the campaign on the ground of a pre-money valuation in the region of 9.9 million, with a target of 0.8 – 1.52 million euros. The campaign is part of a 2.5 million capital increase that may allow Soisy to reach a break-even point in two years. The company may start new fundraising rounds. Matteo Masserdotti is the CEO and founder of 200Crowd. Pietro Cesati (30% owner of the business together with its family) is the ceo of Soisy and founded the company with Andrea Sandro, the former head of risk management of Bnl. In December 2017, Soisy raised 0.891 million through a capital increase. In 2016 the company raised 1.3 million from its founders and other investors and one million from the Smart&Start programme of Invitalia
Fondo Italiano d’Investimento (FII) launched FII Tech Growth Lazio, a fund with resources of 18 million euros, that will co-invest with FII Tech Growth, who reached 110 millions in its second closing (see here a previous post by BeBeez). FII Tech Growth is the first late-stage venture capital for SMEs of the tech sector. The anchor investor of FIITGL is Lazio Innova who indirectly supports Lazio-based scaleups with the European funds that Lazio Venture manages. Lazio Venture invests in venture capital funds that pour resources in innovative startups of the Lazio region with a 60% – 40% ratio. FII Tech Growth will pour 12 million in investments for Lazio-based tech companies. Lazio Venture will reportedly invest in United Ventures, Vertis, Primomiglio, and eventually in 360 Capital Partners. FII Tech Growth already invested in Supermercato24, BeMyEye, Healthware Group, and Seco, who recently acquired the majority of Chinese Fannal Electronics and the whole of US-based Inhand Electronics.
Smart Mobility, a Parma-based startup who developed a service of shared hybrid mobility, raised 400k euros from LVenture Group and listed Italian multiutility Iren (see here a previous post by BeBeez). T-Group and Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) also poured resources in Smart Mobility who will invest the proceeds in its organic development. Andrea Crociani and Francesco Ceriani Sebregondi founded Smart Mobility who received support from LVenture, whose ceo is Luigi Capello, through its incubator Luiss EnLabs. Renato Boero and Massimiliano Bianco are the chairman and ceo of Iren who launched IrenUp a corporate cleantech venture capital that aims to invest 20 million by 2021, with investment tickets of 0.1 – 2 million.
Aleph Finance Group , an UK-based investment holding that owns asset manager Pairstech Capital Management, subscribed a Series A investment round of Italian equity crowdfunding platform Opstart (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Giovanpaolo Arioldi (ceo and coo), Alessandro Arioldi (CTO) and Diego Zanchi founded Opstart in 2015. Alepht in will support the Italian company for developing Crowdbase.it, a blockchain platform that offers to professional and institutional investors instruments in private debt, crypto asset and STOs. Opstart is now hosting the equity crowdfunding campaign of Cesynt Advanced Solutions, the owner of e-learning tool iSkilled. The campaign overtook its minimal target already with a 430k euros raising and has a maximum target of one million euros. After the campaign the company will list directly on Euronext, finalized what has been named a crowdlisting process (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Armando Miele founded Cesynt, which raised 250k euros on Opstart in June 2019 and then paida dividend of 50k euros, or 20% of the proceeds of the campaign.
