The Week in Italian Startup

Wise, a neuro technology startup, raised €25m in debt and equity in a round led by Wallaby. The EIB provided the debt facility.

Rotonium, a quantum-tech startup, raised €1m from CDP VC and Obloo.

Spiagge.it, a travel-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from CDP VC.

Syrto.ai, a company intelligence startup, 🇮🇹raised €580k from a syndicate of investors including Zest.

Alps Blockchain, a bitcoin-mining and energy startup, 🇮🇹raised €105m in a bond from a club-deal syndicated by Azimut.

VC Partners SGR S.p.A. – Gestore EuVECA 🇮🇹announced the first closing of its VC Partners Fund I, at €65m.

Bending Spoons announced the acquisition of WeTransfer.

Altea Federation acquired OOBE-XR.

Cubbit, a distributed enterprise storage startup, raised $12.5m in a round led by ETF Partners and LocalGlobe, with participation from existing and new investors including Primo Ventures, CDP VC, 2100, Azimut, Growth Engine, and Moonstone.

Subbyx 🇮🇹came out of stealth with a €5.5m pre-seed round.

Illuminem, a data-for-sustainability startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m from Techstars, Blackwood Venture, Fortino Capital, Genesis Venture, and other investors.

Fluid Wire Robotics, a startup developing robotic arms for hostile environments, raised €0.8m from RoboIT, Scientifica VC, and Pariter Partners.

While I was offline, we had quite a few other rounds announced: LimoLane (€35m), HUI (€25m), Exein (€15m), BionIT Labs (€5.5m), Wopta (€4.1m), 🇮🇹Rent2Cash (€3m), 🇮🇹Starting Finance (€1.5m), 🇮🇹Newarc (€0.8m)

Vaire Computing, a reversible computing startup, raised $4.5m in a round led by 7percent Ventures.

Brembo Ventures 🇮🇹invested in US-based Spoke Safety.

Nextalia announced the final closing of its €150m VC fund.

Primo Ventures announced its new climate-tech fund, with a €40m first closing.

Rancilio Cube announced a second international VC fund-of-funds with an allocation of €50m.

Bending Spoons acquired Issuu.

Mavriq 🇮🇹acquired Switcho at a €20m valuation.

Contents acquired Zulla.

Cosmico 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in Flatmates.

Qaplà 🇮🇹acquired Transactionale.

What does the perfect seed round look like? [Adam Shuaib]

Conio and Mesh teamed-up to 🇮🇹launch the first bitcoin-based open banking platform in Europe [Blockchain4innovation].

How to go from Seed to Series A to Series B funding [Medium].

Status of Italian Life Sciences VC [Pierpaolo Padula].

Satispay to 🇮🇹expand into offering investment products [Forbes].

D-Orbit launched a new US-based joint venture [SpaceNews].

Neva SGR invested in Bio4dreams, a startup incubator.

An 🇮🇹interview with Alessandra Mazzilli [StartupItalia].

Coatue’s EMW 2024 conference presentation on the state of the markets [Coatue].

The State of Enterprise Tech [Insight Partners].

The valzer of the fundraising numbers for H1 2024 has begun: Growth Capital / ITA, VeM.

Avaneidi, a cybersecurity startup, announced an €8m Series A funding round from United Ventures.

Brandplane, an AI-driven marketing startup, 🇮🇹raised 460k from StyleIT, CDP VC, and business angels.

Recuperiamo, a circular economy startup, 🇮🇹raised 460k from SICI Sgr, Impact Hub, XEquity Venture Club, and other business angels.

Hubique, a proptech startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount from Apside.

Spill, a ready-to-drink-cocktails startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed round from Vesper Holdings and other business angels.

Talking about ready-to-drink cocktails… Also Mixum, another startup in the market, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed round from Avvio Capital, Archimede Capital Partners, and other investors.

Soplaya, a foodtech startup, 🇮🇹raised a new undisclosed round from Linfa, Finint Investments, and Kostanza Investments.

Exor Ventures co-led a $8m Series A round in UK-based Sava.

London / Milan / New York-based Xtribe agreed to go public through a business combination with WinVer Acquisition Corp.

Spain-based NOBA Ventures joins the GELLIFY Innovation Factory.

DGS S.p.A. acquired Ariadne Group.

BetaGlue, a clinical-stage radiotherapy company, raised €8m in a round led by Neva SGR, with participation from LIFTT and FinPosillipo.

Sibill, a treasury management startup, announced a €6.2m round from Keen Venture Partners, Exor Ventures, and Founders.

Talet-E, a startup offering a kit to electrify scooters, 🇮🇹raised €2.6m (€1.7m in debt, €0.9m in equity from RA.MO.CAR, a family office).

Prem AI, a Switzerland-based AI startup, raised $14m in a seed round featuring several high-profile business angels and entrepreneurs.

Accenture closed the acquisition of Customer Management IT and SirfinPA.

iGenius introduced Italia, its First Open Foundational Italian LLM.

250 European Data Infrastructure startups and what we learned from them | MMC.

InSilicoTrials won the prize of startup of the year for AI at the Startup Grind Global 2024.

A navigator of Italian developer salaries, by role and seniority, by DataPizza.

Unruly VC released a full dashboard of their investments. Bold move, and possibly the first I have ever seen.

Revolv.space, a space tech startup, raised €2.6m from Primo Space and Takeoff.

Zefi.ai, a SaaS for collecting user feedback, raised €1.6m from 360 Capital, 14Peaks Capital, B-Heroes, BIT, Secways, Aticco Ventures, Growth Engine, Vento and Halo.

Micthera, a biotech startup, raised €1m from Indaco Venture Partners.

IAG and Italians in VC partners invested in XTRA, a digital health startup based in USA.

Rialto Ventures announced reaching €55m in capital raised. The fund has already completed 8 investments to date.

A2A and 360 Capital 🇮🇹announced 360 Life II, a €200m climate-tech fund aimed at European startups.

CDP VC announced VentureItaly II, its second fund of funds aimed at venture capital operators. According to the announcement, the FoF has a €500m target and has already received €475m from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development and CDP Equity. Since the first installment of the fund attracted 3X the capital deployed, we can hope this fund will mobilize €1-1.5b in additional capital for Italian startups.

Futura, a Milan-based edtech startup, raised a €14m series A round from Eurazeo, United Ventures (already an investor), and Axon Partners Group.

Loquis, a travel podcasting startup, raised €3.78m from P101, Innova Venture, PiCampus, and CDP VC.

Checksig, a crypto custody and trading startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.7m from undisclosed investors.

J4ENERGY, a climate-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from RoboIT, Tech4Planet, and Pariter Robotics.

Domethics, a proptech startup, 🇮🇹raised €725k from CDP VC.

Wishew, a UK-based social network, 🇮🇹raised €10m from LMDV Capital.

NextUp 🇮🇹acquired Sweet Lilium → investment vehicles merging, a new quick way to enhance portfolio diversification? ;-)

JAKALA announced the acquisition of France-based ClaraVista.

Maticmind 🇮🇹acquired GDMS-Italy.

Cryptosmart, a crypto exchange, 🇮🇹raised €3.5m and announced the acquisition of IBX AG, a bitcoin mining company.

BOEM, a startup launching a low-alcohol drink, 🇮🇹raised €3m from LMDV Capital, an existing shareholder.

Lithium Lasers, a deep-tech startup specializing in femto-lasers, raised €2m from Primo Space and 360CP. Primo Space also invested €1.1m in Ecosmic, a space-tech startup.

Qlhype, a second-hand clothes startup, 🇮🇹raised €700k from business angels.

Drinkme, a B2B wine and spirits startup, 🇮🇹raised €580k in a crowdfunding campaign.

Neva SGR 🇮🇹joined a $100m Series D in Coro, an Israeli cybersecurity company.

xFarm Technologies merged with Greenfield and Spacesense to hone its Geospatial AI.

Edflex, a French edtech startup, acquired OfCourseMe.