TWIS #147

Kopjra and Oversonic Robotics raised funding. Alps Blockchain backed by Azimut. Exit for IAG and for DaVinci Salute. The Italian Garante della Privacy vs OpenAI.

Hello,

Welcome back to The Week in Italian Startups. This is Niccolò from Primo Ventures: every week I publish my curated list of the latest news from the Italian startup ecosystem.

The Money

• Kopjra, a legal/cybersec startup, 🇮🇹raised €870k in a crowdfunding campaign led by Azimut.

• Azimut invested €40m in Alps Blockchain, an operator of sustainable mining farms, directly and by promoting a club deal.

• Oversonic robotics, a robot startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount from Cysero.

M&A and liquidity events

• IAG sold its stake in Ultroneo srl to Sistemi SpA.

• UnipolSai 🇮🇹acquired DaVinci Salute.

Italy VS OpenAI

• The Italian Garante della Privacy asked OpenAI to limit its ChatGPT service in Italy, allegedly for misusing the personal data of Italian people (while training its AI) and for allowing access to the service to kids younger than 13 years old. The Garante asked for corrective actions and threatened a €20m fine if the company does not comply. 🤦🏻

• OpenAI replied by cutting off Italy from ChatGPT altogether:

  Sam Altman @sama

  We of course defer to the Italian government and have ceased offering ChatGPT in Italy (though we think we are following all privacy laws). Italy is one of my favorite countries and I look forward to visiting again soon!

  Italy VS synthetic food

  • The Italian government is proposing new legislation to ban the production and distribution of lab-grown food in Italy.

  • Fun fact: if the EU approved a producer of lab-grown food from some other EU country, this would be able to sell its products in Italy, because EU approval would have priority. 🤦🏻🤦🏻

  Reading this week

  • The continued rise of European venture.

  • The unbundling of growth equity, an interesting approach to growth equity investing.

  Fundraising Tracker

  

  Ending Notes

  Giacomo Mollo and I comment weekly on the latest news: subscribe to our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and other platforms to get additional insights on what is happening in the Italian ecosystem.

  Have a great week,

  N.