The week in Italian startups - Issue #7
The Money
Xenialab, a customer-experience startup incubated by I3P, has been acquired by Ingo Group for Eur 4.7M.
Canopy Rivers, a VC firm specialized in cannabis, has completed a $9.4M investment in Canapar, a producer of cannabis-derived products based in Italy.
Blockchain, blockchain
Italian banks have been quietly adopting DLT-based technology. "Spunta", a service for interbank settlements, based on SIAChain, a DLT developed by SIA, will be adopted by more than 50 banks by May.
Italian pasta is landing in the USA thanks to blockchain: Solitaly has adopted ItemX, the certification tool based on DLT technology developed by Genuine Way.
Everyone is worried by COVID-19
And rightly so. Yet, several VCs are starting to think at a post-pandemic worlds. Antonin-Gury-coupier has written an interesting article about Where to invest in Europe post-pandemic, focusing on European startups that raised <20M so far. Meanwhile, a group of VCs from Sourthern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy) have launched Southern European Stars 2020, an online pitching event. Startups can apply for selection here, the deadline is May 11th.
Final note
As the effects of the pandemic are unravelling before us, I've been thinking (and reading) about the current state of tech. I often resort to the seminal paper by Carlota-Perez, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, as a map to figure out where we are in the Information Age. Then, I ended up reading this post by Jerry Neumann, The Deployment Age. The post dates back to 2015. I'll leave up to you to read the post (and the paper), and I only leave you with a final note: I wonder if the current crisis is the one that will definitely shift our market from the Installation to the Deployment age. If this is the case, we are going to witness deeper implications in the financial and productive infrastructure of our economies - will VC as we know it remain a relevant capital allocator, then?
Till next time,
#staysafe,
N.
P.S. As my experimentation with this newsletter continues, feel free to forward it to your friends or contact that might find it useful. And remember to hit "reply" if you have any comments.