TWIS #162
Oversonic Robotics, Picosats, Eathic raised funding. Exits for SplittyPay and BaasBox.
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
Oversonic Robotics, a humanoid robot startup, 🇮🇹raised €5m from Cysero.
Picosats, a satellite telecommunications startup, raised €2.13m from LIFTT, Progress Tech Transfer, and Galaxia.
Panakes Partners co-led a $30m Series B round raised by Allotex Inc, a US- & IT-based ophthalmic biologics and device company.
[a bit late to the news] → One Trading, an Amsterdam-based regulated crypto exchange and a BitPanda spinoff, raised $30m from Valar Ventures [love the name], MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock, and Wintermute Ventures [also love the name]. This is an interesting case of an international team setting up an operating branch in Italy.
DiaTheris, a biotech startup focused on diabetes, 🇮🇹won a startup competition in Switzerland (and a CHF 50k prize).
New funds
The Apulia region 🇮🇹launched a €60m co-investment program for VC funds investing in startups from the territory.
CDP 🇮🇹announced a tech transfer hub dedicated to agritech.
M&A
Reading This Week
Startups joining forces: faire.ai and EasyPol🇮🇹 entered into a partnership.
Public companies joining forces: e-Novia and SIT 🇮🇹announced Hybitat, a joint venture aimed at creating and storing hydrogen.
While Ripple scored a win in its battle against the SEC, CONSOB 🇮🇹announced a public consultation about crypto token regulation.
An 🇮🇹interview with The TechShop founders.
The Venture Capital Report Q2 2023 from ITA / Growth Capital.
This week in AI
Yes, I know: Claude 2, Bard in Italian, the tech infrastructure behind GPT4… but you have already seen all of that, haven’t you?
Fundraising Tracker
Ending Notes
Giacomo Mollo and I comment weekly on the latest news: subscribe to our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, and other platforms to get additional insights on what is happening in the Italian ecosystem.
Have a great week,
N.