The Week in Italian Startups

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The week in Italian startups - Issue #31

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The week in Italian startups - Issue #31

Niccolò Sanarico
Nov 1, 2020
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The week in Italian startups - Issue #31

dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com

The Money

  • Boom [cb], the "Amazon of photography", raised $7M in a Series A round led by United Ventures [cb].

  • Buzzoole [cb], an influencer marketing platform,🇮🇹raised €5M from a syndicate of investors including CDP Venture Capital [cb], Vertis SGR [cb], and others.

  • Heaxel, a medical device company developing robots for neurorehabilitation, 🇮🇹raised €2.2M from existing investor Vertis SGR [cb].

  • The Portal, an immersive VR gaming company, 🇮🇹 raised €428K from Auriga [cb], a banking software company, and CDP Venture Capital [cb].

M&A

  • IHeartMedia [cb, NASDAQ: IHRT] acquired VoxNest, the parent company of Spreaker [cb]. Terms undisclosed.

  • Tinexta [cb] created a new cybersecurity business unit by acquiring the R&D unit of Corvallis and two companies, Yoroi and Swascan [cb]. Tinexta invested €47.8M in the operation.

  • Websolute [cb, WEB.MI], a digital agency listed on the AIM market, 🇮🇹 acquired 51% of AI startup W-Mind in what appears an acqui-hire operation.

Fresch capital for blockchain startups

Albemarle Asset Management joined forces with Eterna Capital [cb] and 🇮🇹 launched Eterna Blockchain II, an early-stage fund specialized in blockchain startups. In case you are curious, the fund supplement is available online.

A new report on European startups

Last week I shared a McKinsey report comparing European startups to the other major ecosystems. This week, Dealroom and Index Ventures published a new report, Can Europe become the most entrepreneurial continent? The bottom line: Europe is growing and is finally taking a relevant role in the world, but the question that opens the report remains still unanswered.

Is this the future of EU jobs?
Is this the future of EU jobs?

WeWork

There was a time when WeWork was one of the craziest things happening out there. It feels it was ages ago. Well, amidst the latest news surrounding the company (e.g. a new IPO - Trying to recover cash by taking a hard stance against nonpaying members - Being involved in a crazy litigation with Softbank) there was an unexpected one: WeWork is opening two more buildings in Milan (paywall), reaching 5 locations in the city by mid-2021. A considerable bet on the comeback of co-working next year.

World of Corporate Venturing

The Global Corporate Venturing initiative launched a new survey to collect data about corporate venture capital for its World of Corporate Venturing 2021 report. If you work in a corporate VC, feel free to complete the survey here. Last year’s report can be downloaded from here (courtesy of James Mawson).

Is AI coming after VC?

A new paper by Andre Retterath benchmarks the screening capabilities of a pool of VCs with the XGBoost algorithm. Read the post to find the answer to the question in the title 😇.

Ending notes

That's all for the week. Thank you to all the readers who reached out with ideas or just to say hi 👋🏻. Please don't stop!

Stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask.

Have a great week,

Nico

Supported by VC Hub Italia
Supported by VC Hub Italia
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The week in Italian startups - Issue #31

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