The Money

• Mirta, a marketplace for luxury goods made in Italy, raised 2.5M euro from a group of angel investors (including Alberto Genovese, founder of Facile.it and Prima Assicurazioni).

• Skinlabo, a digital vertical brand for beauty and cosmetics, raised 1.7M euro from an investment syndicate including LA4G and Maire Investments. The brand, already active in Italy and Spain, has just entered the German market and is planning to launch in France

• Artiness, a university spin-off from the Politecnico of Milano specializing in mixed-reality, won the second edition of the Action for 5G competition by Vodafone. The prize includes up to 1M euro in cash and services.

The Innovators

• It seems that Italy will have a COVID-19 tracking app, at last. Bending Spoons, a scale-up based in Milan, was selected to develop the app to be adopted in Italy.

• Talking about Italy, research confirms that credit card, smartphone, and contactless payments are growing steadily. Unsurprisingly, considering circumstances, online retailers are enjoying explosive growth. Also, the demand for personal computers soared, but due to restrictions in logistics and production, deliveries are lagging.

Everyone is worried about VC in Europe

VCs all over the world are claiming "we are (not) open for business", and several people on the Internet have started putting together information, lists, and surveys about VC activity in the last few weeks. Some of the most interesting are:

• Y&S investor pulse survey: seed and early-stage investors seem to turn a bit pessimistic in this one.

• Gonzalo Sanchez from Seedtable has put together a spreadsheet on the impact of COVID-19 on fundraising in Europe - spoiler alert: we are down year-on-year.

• K-Fund has put together a research about who is investing in what in Europe, with a huge notion table included.

This is all for this week - stay safe and keep building!

N.