May 31, 2021

The week in Italian startups - Issue #58

By Niccolò Sanarico • Issue #58 • View online

Hello,

I am Niccolò and this is my digest of what happened last week in Italian startups.

In this issue: new funding rounds for Commerce Layer, Timeflow, Fido, and others; Primo Space Fund invests in Spain; CDP has a new head, and invests €40m a robotic technology park; Facile.it acquires MiaCar; Riello Investimenti announces an agrifood VC fund.

Enjoy the reading, see you on the other side,

The Money

Commerce Layer, a headless eCommerce startup, raised $16m in a Series B round from Coatue and existing investors.
Primo Space Fund (Primo Ventures) joined the €3m round raised by Spanish startup Pangea Aerospace.
TimeFlow, a B2B marketplace for consultants, 🇮🇹raised €325k from a group of angels.
CRIF invested an undisclosed amount in Fido, a digital credit and risk scoring startup.
Allelica, a disease risk assessment startup, raised $1.75m from a group of investors including Pi Campus.
Deep Tier, a fintech startup dedicated to supply-chain financing, raised a round from Gellify and Azimut Digitech.
HARG (“Health Aging Research Group”), a health-tech startup, 🇮🇹 raised €2.7m from a syndicate of investors led by Gruppo Brixia and AImpact.
Banca Valsabbina 🇮🇹acquired a 9.8% stake in Cardo AI, an AI-driven private debt management startup.
Aortic Lab 🇮🇹announced €1.4m in funding from existing investors and the successful application of its technology to the first three patients.

CDP

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the Italian state bank, has a new head, Dario Scannapieco.
CDP Venture Capital announced a €40m investment in the creation of RoboIT, a tech transfer park specialized in robotics. The project involves a network of universities (Università di Napoli Federico II, Università degli Studi di Verona, and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa), the IIT, Leonardo SpA, and investors such as Pariter Partners, Cysero EuVeca, and Eureka! Ventures.

What are other investors up to?

Riello Investimenti Partners Sgr, a private equity investor, announced Linfa Ventures, an agrifood venture capital fund with a target size of €80m.
Banca Sella Holding 🇮🇹 announced a €3m investment program in up to 60 startups through dpixel, its incubation arm.

M&A

Facile.it, the Italian leading insurance comparator, acquired MiaCar, a marketplace for new and zero-km cars. Price undisclosed.
Irish fintech CleverCards announced the acquisition of ExpendiaSmart (EdenRed’s enterprise expense management solution) and EdenRed Italia Fin.

Open VC

Have you ever dreamed of a crowdsourced database of VC investors, with filters based on sector/ticket/geography, etc..? Here’s the web app you wanted.

Reading this week

An interview with Erika De Santi, co-founder and managing director at WeRoad, a travel startup.

Jobs in Italian startups

You can explore 🔍 open positions here. Feel free to share the link with your contacts.
You are welcome to add new open positions using this form 📥 . Or, forward the link to your CEO or HR person - the more open positions, the more relevant the list, the more it will travel across the web, the more candidates will see it. Thank you! 🙏🏻

Ending notes

The ENEA Tech drama that I spoke about in the last issue 🇮🇹unfolded during the week, as the proposal to pivot the foundation into investing in vaccine research was confirmed by the government. The official website already has a new “change in progress” landing page. Another proof of the inconsistency of our government that I would like not to witness anymore.

Have a great week, and keep pushing!

Did you enjoy this issue?

By Niccolò Sanarico

The week in Italian startups is a weekly collection of the most interesting news in the Italian startup ecosystem, with a focus on funding rounds, milestones, major partnerships, and innovation news. The weekly email will be in your inbox on Monday morning(-ish).

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This newsletter is supported by VCHub, the association of Italian Venture Capital, investors in innovation, startups, and innovative SMEs.

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