The week in Italian startups - Issue #13
The Money
Azimut, probably the biggest independent asset management company in Italy, announced the launch of a new fund focused on AI, CyberSecurity, IoT and B2B software in general. The fund has a target of €50M. Gellify [cb] will act as the scouting & investment advisor to the fund. This new announcement strengthens the alternative investments portfolio for Azimut, after the recently launched Italia 500🇮🇹 fund.
Hyris [cb], a London and Milan-based AI startup, raised a series A round from a syndicate of investors led by Astanor Ventures [cb] and including Pi Campus [cb]. Amount undisclosed. The company applies AI to the genetic analysis of biological samples.
Aulab [cb], an ed-tech startup based in Bari, raised €400K🇮🇹 from a syndicate including Social Fare Seed, an impact seed investor, and other business angels. Aulab has developed an education program ("Hackademy") aimed at training junior full stack developers in peripheral geographies (e.g. Southern Italy), creating forward-looking work competencies in underserved markets.
Startup Geeks, a community for aspiring entrepreneurs started in 2019 and quickly grown to 350+ founders in its premium membership, raised €170K in an angel round🇮🇹.
B-Heroes, a TV docu-reality show where startups compete for a final prize of up to €1M, concluded its 2020 edition nominating ACBC as its winner.
Crowdfunding
Frescofrigo [cb], a retail commerce startup positioning physical fridges filled with fresh and healthy food inside office spaces, closed a crowdfunding campaign with a 333% overfunding, raising €500K.
Exits, exits, exits!
Teamsystem has been on an acquisition spree recently. The company announced the acquisition of 5% of Habble [cb], with the option to purchase up to 60% of the company. Gellify (see above) was among Habble investors.
Telepass, an Italian company offering payments and mobility solutions, announced the acquisition of Washout [cb], a startup offering a waterless car and motorcycle cleaning service. Washout was the B-Heroes winner in 2018 when it received €300K as the final prize.
Eni, the Italian energy company, announced the acquisition of a minority stake in Tate [cb], a mobile-first retail energy provider for millenials.
Everybody is worried about (the aftermath of) COVID-19
In my "COVID-19" dedicated section, this time I'm sharing this article from EU-startups, reporting the results of a survey on European startups and VCs. The focus is on the expected "new normal" in the next 12-18 months. Unsurprisingly, a lot of attention goes to remote working, the return of offline events, the hope that fundraising will be back. The article includes a quote from our own Davide Dattoli (founder of Talent Garden [cb]), who is unsurprisingly bullish about the rebound of coworking spaces.
Tweet of the week
How to cold email a VC.
This is the end for this week. As usual, feel free to reply for comments or to forward this email to anyone who might be interested.
Stay safe,
Nico
#BLM