Invitalia Ventures, the Italian Government vehicle for venture capital investments that has resources of one billion euros, rebranded as Cdp Venture Capital sgr spa-Fondo Nazionale Innovazione (Fni) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Enrico Resmini and Francesca Bria are the company’s ceo and chairman. The company’s directors are Pierpaolo Di Stefano, Marco Bellezza, Isabella de Michelis di Slonghello, Lucia Calvosa, Antonio Margiotta, Andrea Francesco Cardamone, and Sergio Luciano Buonanno.
Swedish open banking business Tink raised 90 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). UK venture capital Dawn Capital, US HMI Capital, and Insight Partners led the round. Further investors are Poste Italiane, Heartcore Capital, ABN AMRO Ventures, and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital unit of Bnp Paribas.
Italian e-commerce RocketBaby raised more than one million euros from business angels and Mediaset group (see here a previous post by BeBeez). RocketBaby will invest these proceeds in its organic development. The company was one of the eight startups that joined the London event Made in Italy 2.0.2.0 that UK-Italian incubator iStarter promoted. Alexander Jovanovic, the ceo, founded RocketBaby in December 2014. RocketBaby has sales of 2.32 million and an ebitda of 0.151 million. RocketBaby already invested 0.6 million and expects to generate sales of 10 million for 2020.
Italian developer of iOS apps Bending Spoons tabled an offer of 260 million euros for acquiring US dating app Grindr (see here a previous post by BeBeez). StarTip (an investment vehicle of Italian businessman Gianni Tamburi), H14 (a holding of Barbara, Eleonora, and Luigi Berlusconi), Nuo Capital have 5.7% of Bending Spoons since July 2019. Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco Bpm, Illimity, and Banca Ifis subscribed a financing contract with Bending Spoons for a total of 234.5 million. Grindr also attracted the offer of an US Family office. In January 2016, the target Chinese videogame company Beijing Kunlun Tech acquired 60% of Grindr for 155 million US Dollars. However, the Government Committee for foreign investments in USA denied Beijing Kunlun Tech Company the authorization for acquiring the asset on the ground of privacy issues. Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, and Luca Querella founded Bening Spoons in 2013 in Denmark. The company has sales of 45 million.
PatchAi, an Italian provider of healthcare services, raised 860k euros in 2019 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In March 2019, the company closed a first round of 0.11 million that private equity UVCAP led. In July 2019, PatchAi raised a further 750k euros round from UVCAP, Healthware Ventures (fka Esense Venture), Padda Health, Avalanche Investments and other business angels. The startup received Italian and international awards amounting to more than 0.3 million in cash or services. PatchAi invested these resources in shortening the time to market for the launch of its products. Alessandro Monterosso, Filip Ivancic, Kumara Palanivel, and Daniele Farro founded the business.
Italian geo-podcasting platform Loquis launched an equity crowdfunding on Mamacrowd and raised more than 0.67 million euros, above the 0.45 million target (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Milan-listed incubator Digital Magics, Carlo Feltrinelli, Bob Kunze-Concewitz, Alberto Hazan, Cristiano Arca, Irving Bellotti, Giuseppe Morici, Massimo Armanini, and Manilo Marocco poured resources in Loquis. Bruno Pellegrini, the ceo, founded the company.
Banco Bpm signed a partnership with Milan-listed business incubator Digital Magics for financing innovative startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Banco Bpm will implement new qualitative and quantitative appraisal criteria for the companies that apply for financing. Alessandro Malacart is the cfo of Digital Magics. Banco Bpm provided financing to 10% of Italian innovative startups. Digital Magics ceos are Marco Gay and founder Gabriele Ronchini. The company has sales of 2.6 million euros with net profits of 0.385 million. Digital Magics is reportedly working on the launch of Step Fund, a listed investment fund that will support with seed tickets of 0.3 – 1 million digital startups with a pre-money value below 5 million. Gennaro Tesone, a partner of Digital Magics, promoted Step Fund.
Digital agency TMP Group, Italian law firm Gattai, Minoli, Agostinelli & Partners, Two Hundred (the owner of equity crowdfunding platform 200Crowd), and coworking firm Talent Garden launched Atena Startup Battle, a competition for startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The winner will receive an award of 50,000 euros of legal counsel, support for communication, digital networking, and investiments in equity crowdfunding. Deadline for applying to the competition is 10 April 2020. The jury of Atena will shortlist 20 startups that will compete with their pitches on 11 June 2020.
Italian proptech Casavo started activity in Spain for its instant buying services for real estate assets (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Casavo hired Juan Uribe as general manager and further six new executives. Giorgio Tinacci and Simon Specka founded the company. However, Specka sold his stake in the business in early 2019. In 2019, Casavo has been the Italian startup that raised the highest amount of resources in equity (82 million euros, BeBez News Premium subscribers may download here the BeBeez 2019 Venture Capital Report, find out here how to subscribe for just 20 euros per month). In October 2019, Casavo raised a series B round of 50 million, (20 million in equity and 30 million in debt). Greenoaks Capital acted as lead investor. Casavo previously raised 25 million and 7 million in February 2019 from Project A Ventures (lead investor), Picus Capital, 360 Capital Partners, Kervis Asset Management, Boost Heroes, Marco Pescarmona, and Rancilio Cube, the impact investing family office of the eponymous family. In September 2017, Casavo received a pre-seed investment of 0.5 million from Picus Capital which in March 2018 poured 1.4 million together with 360 Capital Partners and Rancilio Cube.
Italian platform for B2B innovation Gellify acquired a minority of wine e-merchant Winelivery (see here a previous post by BeBeez). This transaction is part of the convertible note bridge that the company launched in July 2019 and for which set a target of 1.5 million euros. The company structured this round as a pre-ipo and may list as soon as it generates a positive ebitda. Winelivery previously closed three equity crowdfunding campaigns on CrowdFundMe: the first for 0.15 million in May 2017 (pre-money value of 1.2 million), the second for 0.4 million in January 2018 (3.2 million), and the third for more than 1.2 million in January 2019 (7.2 million). Winelivery will invest such proceeds in the development of a B2B Analytics and marketing unit. Francesco Magro the company in 2016 together with Andrea Antinori. Winelivery has sales of 1.45 million (+272% yoy).
Rendimento Etico, the Italian real estate lending crowdfunding platform focused on real estate collateral to bad loans, raised 6 million euros in 2019, while the turnover of the sector in Italy amounts to 18 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Rendimento Etico completed 26 real estate projects with the support of 2.754 investors for an annual median yield of 11.7%. Andrea Maurizio Gilardoni founded the company in February 2019. Rendimento Etico belongs to Credito Italia, of which International Marketing Consulting of Lucijana Lozancic has a controlling stake.
