Bending Spoons (BS), an Italian developer of apps, is about to close a 200 million US Dollars round that attracted the resources of Durable Capital, Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, NB Renaissance, StarTIP, and Nuo Capital(see here a previous post by BeBeez). Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, and Luca Querella are the founders of BS that aims to grow through acquisitions with a focus on USA market ahead of a listing on Nasdaq. Bending Spoons has recently acquired Meetup, a social network with 60 million users. The company has sales of 151.3 million euros, an ebitda of 1.3 million, a net financial debt of 26.5 million, and equity of 97.4 million.
Panakès Partners, a life sciences venture capital, invested in German-Swiss Disco Pharmaceuticals and UK Enterprise Therapeutics for which the fund led a Series B follow-on financing of 30.4 million euros (26 million GBPs) (30,4 milioni di euro) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The British company also attracted the resources of Versant Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Forbion, Epidarex Capital, and IP Group. Rob Woodman, a partner of Panakes, will join the board of Enterprise Therapeutics which will invest the raised resources in the Phase 2a of ETD001, a programme for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. John Ford is the ceo of Enterprise Therapeutics.
UK’s NeoPhore, a developer of therapies for cancer that is in the portfolio of Claris Venture, announced the expansion of its Series B round by a further 9.6 GBPs (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company attracted the resources of Neva (Intesa Sanpaolo), LIFTT, Simon Fiduciaria (Ersel Group), CPF – Sixth Element Capital, Astellas Venture Management, 3B Future Health Fund (fka Helsinn Investment Fund), 2investAG, and Claris Ventures. The round will be worth a total of 31.1 million. Alberto Bardelli is the founder of NeoPhore that will invest such proceeds in its PMS2 programme. Robert James is the chairman of NeoPhore.
Angelini Ventures, the corporate venture capital of Angelini Industries, invested eight million euros in US medtech Noctrix Health and biotech COUR Pharmaceuticals (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Noctrix Health launched a series C round of 40 million US Dollars and also attracted the resources of Sectoral Asset Management, Asahi Kasei America, Resmed, OrbiMed, and Treo Ventures. COUR launched series A round of 105 million US Dollars in which invested Lumira Ventures, Alpha Wave Ventures, Roche Venture Fund, Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative, Bristol Myers Squibb, and JDRF T1D Fund.
Italian startup Renewcast, a developer of tools for wind power forecasts, raised a seed round of 0.85 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Renewcast received assistance from Avvocati.Net whild Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Europa advised Finnish Helen Ventures which poured 0.4 million in the company. CDP Venture Capital invested 0.2 million. Renewcast attracted 0.25 million from Estonian firms Mindtitan (work for equity agreement) and Beamline Fund (conversion of previous quasi equity instruments worth in the region of 0.060 million). By early 2025, the company aims to launch a pre-series A round worth in the region of 3 million for its international expansion. Fabio Nicolò founded Renewcast in 2020.
Seroba Life Science, an Irish life sciences venture capital fund, will open a bureau in Milan (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Seroba also said it raised 123 million euros from the European Investment Fund (EIF), Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), Enterprise Ireland (EI), Allied Irish Banks (AIB), family offices, and CDP Venture Capital. The fund will target early-stage startups based in Western Europe and North America. The fund aims to invest in up to 12 companies and already poured resources in Perfuze, Sibylla Biotech, Deciphex, Complement Therapeutics, and Artica Therapeutics.
