The week in Italian startups - Issue #81

The Money

• Wetacoo, an integrated logistics solution, 🇮🇹 raised €750k in a round led by LVenture and Lazio Innova.

• Aryel, an augmented reality startup, raised €250k.

• Algor, the developer of an AI solution to create conceptual maps from long text, 🇮🇹 raised €180k from Club degli Investitori.

• Pinv, a cash flow management startup, 🇮🇹 raised an undisclosed amount from Fabrick and LVenture.

• Gellify invested an undisclosed amount in Miraitek4.0, a spinoff from the Politecnico of Milano.

Liquidity Events

• Epsilen Bio, a Milan-based biotech startup that raised seed funding from Sofinnova, was acquired by Chroma Medicine, a startup developing epigenetic editing tools that just raised a USD 125m series A.

• Sift, a company developing digital trust & safety solutions, announced the acquisition of Keyless, a passwordless and multi-factor authentication provider. Keyless had raised capital from several business angels and investors, including LA4G, Primo Ventures, and P101. Price undisclosed.

• Alira Health acquired PatchAI, a smart patient engagement platform.

• Dedalus Group, a healthcare and diagnostic software provider, acquired Swiftqueue Technologies.

• Epi acquired Calcioshop, a sports merchandise e-shop.

• Lutech Group 🇮🇹announced the acquisition of Advantage srl, a company specializing in digital transformation projects in the manufacturing sector. Price undisclosed.

• Tikehau acquired 25% of Mint, a madtech company.

Tech4Planet

• CDP Venture Capital is launching a second technology transfer center following RoboIT (see issue #58), this time focused on sustainable economy, clean energy, and circular economy. The hub will be named Tech4Planet and will be based on a collaboration with some of the major Italian polytechnics (Milano, Torino, Bari). CDP is setting aside €55m to finance the project, which is aiming to raise up to €130m.

A new impact fund

Oltre Impact SGR 🇮🇹announced the first closing of Oltre III, its third fund, at €53m.

Italian Tech Alliance

VC Hub 🇮🇹 rebranded as Italian Tech Alliance and expanded its board of directors with 3 new members from the Italian startup ecosystem.

Ending Notes

Join the Twitter Spaces conversation between Giacomo Mollo and myself commenting on the latest news, every Monday at 6:30 pm CET (follow us for a live reminder: Nico / Jack). If you miss the live discussion, you can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and other podcast platforms.

Have a great week,

N.