The Italian Ministry for the Economic Development (MISE) will pour up to 2 billion euros in funds of funds managed by Cdp Venture Capital, the venture capital vehicle of CDP, if the proposal of Italian MP Sestino Giacomoni, the chairman of the Surveillance Commission for CDP, is finally accepted (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Actually the proposal has already been accepted by a parliamentary Commission which is examining a draft law aiming at improving infrastructures development in Italy, so now it is important to see if the whole Parliament will vote in favour.
Step 4 Business (S4B) raised more than 8.5 million euros from Azimut and CRIF (see here a previous post by BeBeez). STEP 4 Business founders are Marco Montagnani, Nuno Couceiro and Alberto Almoguera. Further investors in the company are Andrea Bertini and Pierluigi Giannico. S4B and Azimut launched together Azimut Marketplace by Step, a marketplace for corporates and fintech services that also attracted the resources of Gellify.
Herbolea, an Italian biotech firm, raised 5 million euros, from French Óskare Capital venture capital fund with a focus on medical and pharmaceutical cannabis and other HNWI investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Herbolea was born in 2017 and will invest these proceeds in expanding in USA and abroad. Priscilla Merlino recently replaced Vieri Paoletti as indpendent board member.
Italian financial firm 4AIM Sicaf spa Comparto 2 Crowdfunding invested in the crowdlisting campaign launched by Double A, the owner of the sport brand Eye Sport, on the portal Opstart on the ground of a pre-money value of 20 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The campaign will end on 11 November Double A set fundraising target of 0.5 – 2 million euros and already raised one million. Once completed the campaign, the company will start the activities to launch an IPO on Milan Euronext Growth.
Italian real estate equity crowdfunding portal Walliance, which in turn is a venture-backed startup, signed a partnership with the advisor JLL (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The investors in the campaigns will get a property outlook from the advisory firm. Giacomo (ceo) and Gianluca Bertoldi (chief project officer) founded Walliance in 2017.
On 20 October, Wednesday, Ricehouse, an Italian benefit company that recycles the waste out of the production of rice for manufacturing items for the construction sector, received the WPP Innovators award (see here a previous post by BeBeez). WPP professionals will provide the company with communication coaching services. Tiziana Monterisi and Alessio Colombo founded Ricehouse in 2016. WPP Innovators also awarded Ittinsect, a startup for the sustainable fishing that the ceo Alessandro Romano founded. The other four startups that reached the final stage of WPP Innovators award are Kampaay; Futurely; Endelea, and Farmelody. Kampaay is an Event-as-a-Service company that DanieleArduini (ceo), Stefano Brigli Bongi (cmo), Enrico Berto (head of product), and Marco Alba (cfo) founded in 2018. Futurely is a provider of school orientation for teenagers that Elisa Piscitelli and Mariapaola Testa founded in 2019. Endelea is a fashion brand that creats items with African wax fabrics. Farmelody is a startup whose mission is to reduce the waste of food in animal farms.
