The Money

• CyberGuru, a cybersec training startup, raised €3.6m in a Series A round led by P101 with the participation of Adara Ventures.

• 4Books, a micro-learning platform, 🇮🇹raised €2.4m from P101 and Startupitalia.

• Collegia, a UK-based app for auto-enrolment and personal pension plans co-founded by Riccardo Gasparini, raised GBP 500k.

• Neurala, a vision AI company based in Boston, opened its first European subsidiary in Trieste (Italy), supported by an investment by Friulia and AddValue, a Milan-based investment firm.

Liquidity Events

• Zucchetti continues its acquisition spree by purchasing 65% of Axioma, a 42-years old company developing an ERP suite.

Crowdfunding and access

Back in issue #40, I discussed how LPs were raising crowdfunding money by selling to retail investors access to special deals, otherwise out of reach. For example, Azimut launched several VC funds raising money from its retail customer base and partnering up with professional investors to deploy the capital (P101, Mamacrowd, Gellify). Global Tech Ventures is another perfect example: after a successful crowdfunding campaign, raising close to €3.8m from the community, the company went on investing in 7 unicorns or "contenders" (startups that are about to become unicorns): WeFox, Chipper Cash, Eat Just, PandaDoc, Lucid, Monthly, Relativity Space. Not the kind of targets that you can find on your home banking investment portal.

The National Cybersecurity Agency

The Italian government is 🇮🇹planning to create a National Cybersecurity Agency. The institution will be in charge of the design and coordination of the national strategy for cybersecurity. The Agency will start with a €41m budget and the mandate to hire 300 people.

Jobs in Italian Startups /1

🇮🇹According to the research conducted by Egon Zehnder and VC Hub Italia, 70% of startups surveyed increased their staff in 2020, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here a recap in English of the key findings from the report.

Jobs in Italian startups /2

• 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 Week in Italian Startups goes Live on Clubhouse! Join Giacomo Mollo and myself discussing the deals of the week. Every Monday, from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm. As always, this is a new experiment and any feedback will be more than welcome!

Have a great week,

N.