The week in Italian startups - Issue #64
The Money
Cubbit, a distributed, privacy-first cloud provider, raised €7m in an equity and debt round (bonus: you can find a discount code to a cubbit cell in the link). New investors include Azimut, Gellify, CDP Venture Capital, and IAG, along with returning🇮🇹 investors Techstars and Primo Ventures.
ShippyPro, a Florence-based shipping automation platform, raised $5m from Five Elms Capital.
Lampoo, a Milan-based fashion consignment marketplace, raised €6m from a syndicate of angel investors.
Senso, a refurbished iPhone seller, 🇮🇹raised €6m in debt.
La Passione, a D2C cycling clothing brand, announced a new round by existing investors MIP, Club Italia Investimenti 2, Club Digitale, and Cyclo Club. Amount undisclosed, but from the article and public information, it looks like the round was €4m-ish.
Novavido, an IIT spin-off, raised €6m from a syndicate of investors including Alfasigma, Utopia SIS, the David Chiossone Institute, and Club2021. The startup is developing a therapy for retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.
FabricNano, a UK-based bio-manufacturing startup, raised $12.5m in a round led by Atomico. The startup is co-founded by CTO 🇮🇹 Ferdinando Randisi.
ENEA (Bio?) Tech
As you know I have been following the Enea Tech story since its inception, rapid ascension, and sudden fall. Events are still unfolding: a member of the Italian Parliament, Luca Carabetta, 🇮🇹published on Linkedin the announcement that the foundation will be allowed to invest €250m according to the original mission (investing in agri-tech, deep-tech, IT, circular economy startups), and will manage an extended budget of €400m focused on biotech investments.
In essence, it appears that in order to solve the problem, the solution was to provide the foundation with more money (from €500m to €650m).
It is still unclear whether the original management will be allowed to resume working, or if a new team will be brought on board.
Fintech Sandbox
Wired Italia 🇮🇹reports that starting from the next 17th of July the Italian fintech sandbox will go live, allowing fintech and insuretech startups to develop their products within a set of looser rules. Another important step to fill the gap between Italy and Europe in this sector.
An interview with Marco Gaiani
Ilaria Cavalleri interviewed Marco Gaiani, the founder of Linfa Ventures, an agri-food-tech VC fund recently launched and currently in fundraising.
Jobs in Italian startups
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! 🙏🏻
New this week: open positions from Kensu.io (senior backend engineer), DoctorsinItaly (social media manager), and Indacoapp (digital marketer - Fashion & Beauty).
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 CEST (9:30 am PDT). In case you miss the episode, you can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify.
Have a great week,
N.