Fintech startup Oval Money raised 1.26 million british pounds through an equity crowdfunding campaign on UK platform Seedrs (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In the last three years, Oval raised 12.26 million euros from Intesa Sanpaolo, b-ventures, Bertoldi Holding, Neva Finventures, and further investors in crowdfunding campaigns. Benedetta Arese Lucini, Claudio Bedino, and Edoardo Benedetto founded Oval in 2017.
Italy’s IoT company Sclak, a portfolio company of Vertis Venture 2 Scaleup, acquired Germany’s Nello.io (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Christoph Baumeister and Daniel Jahn founded the company in 2015 and raised 3.6 million euros through six rounds. Andrea Mastalli, Andrea Ferro e Daniele Poggi, and Walter Coraccio founded Sclak in 2014. The company raised 3 million from Vertis in 2018. In December 2018, Sclak signed a partnership with locks producer Meroni for the launch of the brand Meroni Technology. Sclak also signed a partnership with Givi for the launch of motorbike cases with an app locking technology.
Finland’s Sooma Oy raised 1.2 million euros from family office Athenamed and Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), who appointed Michele Marzola and Carlo Brunetti as champion for the investment (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sooma received also a 250k euros grant from Business Finland, the government agency for innovation. Tuomas Neuvonen is the ceo and co-founder of Sooma Oy, who raised 2.5 millions in six rounds. Jani Virtanen co-founded the company in 2013. Sooma develops devices for non-invasive treatments of neurological diseases.
The Italian Embassy in Israel and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center (ISIC, part of Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo) launched the first accelerator of Italian startups based in Israel (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The accelerator already shortlisted 10 startups, 7 of them will spend three months at the Eilat Tech Center (Gruppo Arieli), an Israeli accelerator. The Italian Embassy will support each startup with 10,000 euros.
Microcredito di Impresa, a provider of microloans to small entreprises of which Innovative-RFK holds 26%, raised more than 1.7 million euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on BacktoWork24 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company’s least target was of 341,250 euros for a pre-money value of about 1,75 million. The company sold to 69 investors a total of 50,12%. Massimo Laccisaglia (the chairman od i-RFK) is the ceo of Microcredito, while Diego Rizzato is the ceo. Francesco Rosetti (ceo of Double Consulting), Edit Service, Confartigianato Viterbo, Marco Ravaldi, Diego Rizzato, Novaria, and Innovative-RFK launched Microcredito.
Matchplat raised one million euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on the TwoHundred platform (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company set a least target of 300k euros on the ground of a pre-money value in the region of 7 millions. Matchplat sold a 12.55% to 57 investors. Copan Italia and Milan-listed Antares Vision poured resources in the Italian startup.
Nicefiller already raised 160k euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company set a target of 0.1 – 0.6 million for a 1.3% – 8.11% stake on the ground of a pre-money value of about 6.8 million euros. Nicefiller developed a proprietary technology for food packaging and already invested 1.2 million since its birth in 2011. The company will invest the proceeds of this campaign in its organic development, said ceo and 4% owner Gavino Boringhieri to BeBeez. Nicefiller is a spin-off of the Engineering Department of Salerno University. Valeria Bugatti (cto – 15% owner) founded the company with chief scientific officer Vittoria Vittoria (20%). Chairman Mario Raimondi and cfo Stefano Lomurno invested 0.275 million in 2012 for a 60% of Nicefiller. In 2016, the shareholders poured a further 60,000 euros. In October 2017 the company received a grant of 1.1 million from the Programme UE Horizon 2020.
Ulixes Capital Partners invested 30k euros for 1% of Entire Digital Publishing (EDP), an Italian Artificial Intelligence-based publishing company (see here a previous post by BeBeez). These resources are part of the 3.5 million investment round that EDP launched in October 2019. Massimiliano Squillace founded EDP in 2017. This year the company expects to generate revenues of above 1 million (+200% yoy). In January 2020, the company will join CES 2020, a Las Vegas event for innovative startups and after then it will launch a 6 million euros capital increase for supporting its organic development.
Italian innovation platform B2B Gellify acquired a minority of Hokan, a startup with Italian founders for the custody of cryptoassets (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Aldo Peter Lo Castro and Romeo Magagnotti founded UK-based Hokan in 2019.
Former top banker Roberto Nicastro acquired 1.6% of Bandyer, a video communication platform that Filippo Rocca, Simone Mazzoni, and Francesco Durighetto founded in 2017 (See here a previous post by BeBeez). Dario Frigerio, an executive of Unicredit, acquired 1.1% of the business through a capital increase. Bandyer raised 3.2 million euros through the following rounds: 0.2 million (seed, December 2014); 0.425 million (seed June 2015); 0.3 million (seed September 2016); 0.3 million (seed October 2017). In January 2018, the company raised 0.4 million through a convertible note that Intesa Sanpaolo subscribed, while in December 2018 it raised 0.35 million through an angel round. In June 2019 the company raised 1.2 million euros and received the call for equity crowdfunding award of Assolombarda-Opstart.
Alternative Capital Partners sgr, an ESG investor inalternative assets, launched Fintech Alternative Investment Platform – Faip, a fintech platform for managing alternative illiquid assets (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Evarist Granata is the ceo and head of private capital of Acp. Faip is born out of partnerships that Acp signed with rating agency Modefinance (it attracted a 1.3 million investment from Corvallis), Whit-e/[email protected], part of TeamSystem, and FinScience, part of big data analysis provider Datrix. Corvallis controlling shareholders are Antonio Santocono and Enrico Del Sole, while Nem has 43.5% of the business. Modefinance created for Acp MORE by Oplon, an exclusive credit scoring solution. Whit-e is a marketplace for commercial invoices of companies that cannot easily access to the credit market but have clients with good credit rating. The company will act as system integrator for Faip, while [email protected] will provide risk management services to Acp. Finscience founders are Fabrizio Milano D’Aragona, ceo, Mauro Arte, Claudio Zamboni, and Alessandro Arrigo, general manager. Finscience will provide Acp with algorithms for risk assessment. Acp partners Emanuele Ottina and Granata own 60% of the firm, while the remaining stakes belong to the Cardano/Di Vincenzo, Ielo, Ginena, Griffo, Cabassie, and Ferragamo families. In November 2019, Acp launched Sustainable Securities Fund, an investment vehicle for renewable energy and biofuels. In September ACP launched Infrastructure Real Estate Recovery Fund (IRERF), an ESG investment firm. Sources said to BeBeez that this fund has a fundraising target of 250 million and may reach a 50 – 100 million closing in early 2020.
The Fintech and Insurtech Observatory of Milan Polytechnic University said that in Italy there are 326 fintech and insurtech startups (see here a previous post by BeBeez). These companies raised financing for 654 million euros, an average of 2.6 million per company, little above the 636 million figure that BeBeez Private Data calculated on the ground of official statements. Fintech is one of the sectors that BeBeez Private Data monitors. Find out here how to subscribe to the Combo Version that includes the reports and the insight views of BeBeez News Premium 12 months for 110 euros per month.
In Italy 108 startups operate in the Proptech sector (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The proptech operating in Italy tripled in the last eighteen months, said Milan Polytechnic University PropTech Monitor during the launch presentation of JRC (Joint Research Center) Proptech that Accenture, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Bosch, Covivio, Edison, and Vodafone founded together with the University. Assoimmobiliare, RICS – Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Ance, Assolombarda will provide external support. The sector is attracting a growing interest from investors, said Stefano Bellintani, a Professor at Milan Polytechnic University, to BeBeez, pointing out that Italy’s proptech Casavo closed a series B investment round of 50 million euros (20 million in equity and 30 million in debt).
I3P, the incubator of Turin Polytechnic University, supported 255 companies in the last 20 yers, 22 of them in 2019 (See here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2019, I3P sold to Italian B2B IT company Zucchetti the whole Intervieweb and a 51% of Fluida, while Milan-listed TPS Group acquired Dead Pixels. I3P received the award as the best Government-backed incubator from UBI Global World Rankings of Business Incubators and Accelerators 2019 – 2020.
