The week in Italian startups - Issue #98
The Money
Dovevivo, a prop-tech startup, raised €50m from Starwood Capital and 🇮🇹announced the acquisition of Chez Nestor, a French competitor.
Everli, an e-grocery shopping startup, raised €22m in a round led by United Ventures.
Diadem, a startup developing the first blood-based test for the early prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD), raised €10m in a round led by CDP Venture Capital and joined by existing investor Panakes Partners.
Newlisi, a cleantech startup, 🇮🇹raised €6.5m from existing investors 360 Capital, Indaco SGR, and Micheli Associati.
Rubber Conversion, a cleantech startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.5m from CDP Venture Capital, LIFTT, and other investors.
Out Of, a sports gear startup, 🇮🇹raised €2m from a syndicate of investors led by In3 Ventures.
Rifò, a circular economy startup in the fashion market, 🇮🇹raised €1.5m from a syndicate of investors including business angels, AImpact, and Nana Bianca.
Rockin1000 🇮🇹raised €1.1m in a crowdfunding campaign, with the lead of Orienta Capital Partners.
IAMA Therapeutics, a startup developing solutions to neurological diseases, 🇮🇹raised €8m from Claris Ventures and CDP Venture Capital.
This Unique, a femtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €700k from Luiss Alumni 4 Growth (LA4G), LVenture Group, Maire Investments, and BHolding.
RoomMate, a prop-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €600k from a syndicate of angels.
Mister Worker, a marketplace for professional tools, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount from Gellify and Azimut Digitech Fund.
iCarry, a last-mile logistics startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount from Mecar Group.
The Money, international edition 🌎
Club degli Investitori invested an undisclosed amount in FlexiWAN, an Israeli open-source software company.
Excellis, an investment holding specialized in deep-tech, announced the investment of an undisclosed amount in Lausanne-based Zaphiro Technologies, a smart grid spinoff of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).
M&A
MAG, an insurance broker, 🇮🇹acquired the majority of Neosurance, an insuretech startup.
Exor Seeds
We met Exor Seeds, the venture arm of Exor, a few times in this newsletter, announcing investments in very diverse rounds (from very early to very late).
Diego Piacentini, chairman of Exor Seeds since September last year, finally announced the new investment strategy of the firm: Exor Seeds will invest €150k from the group’s assets into two Italian startups a week, in return for between 5% and 8% of the company.
Rolling the numbers, with just €15m of investable capital, in a year the firm could build a portfolio of 100 startups; at €3m average post-money, if just one of them exits after reaching unicorn status, assuming a 50% dilution, it alone will return more than the entire allocation.
This strategy is similar to YC or Kima Ventures - plus the backing of the financial strength of Exor to double down on winners.
One probable scenario is that being selected by Exor Seeds will become some sort of signaling to other investors, quickly attracting capital for the seed/early-stage rounds, with crowding-out and valuation-inflation effects similar to YC.
Great move by Exor and Diego.🙌🏻
Standard VC termsheet
Italian Tech Alliance, the association of Italian investors and entrepreneurs, coordinated a working group to finalize a standard Series A term sheet for Italian startups. The PDF is available for download 🇮🇹here, with a dual-language glossary here.
Fundraising tracker
Every week, I am posting a fundraising tracker based on the news I publish.
Recent job positions from XJobs
Yocabè is looking for a Developer
Vino.com is looking for a Senior Performance Marketing Specialist
Shopfully is looking for an Industry Sales Manager
Dog Heroes is looking for a Graphic Design Intern
IEM is looking for a Data Analyst
About XJobs:
The XJobs platform is a free portal listing open job positions from the Italian startup ecosystem, managed by CDP Venture Capital. If you desire, you can apply for free and have your job positions posted on the platform by following this link.
Ending Notes
Join the conversation between Giacomo Mollo and myself commenting on the latest news, every Monday at 7:00 pm CET (follow us on Twitter for a live reminder and the link: Nico / Jack). If you miss the live discussion, you can subscribe to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and other podcast platforms.
Have a great week,
N.