TWIS #199
TWIS #199
Cosmico raised funding. LIFTT invested abroad. CDP launched Frontech, a new accelerator. Fiscozen was acquired. Q1 in Italian startups.
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 💰
Cosmico, a talent-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €4m from Prana Ventures, 40Jemz, Intesa Sanpaolo, and business angels.
LIFTT joined the $26m round raised by Evergreen Theragnostics, a life sciences startup.
New funds 🔥
CDP Venture Capital launched Frontech Accelerator, with Algorand and Microsoft as technical partners
M&A 🥩
Visma acquired Fiscozen: exit for United Ventures and Keen Venture Partners.
Q1 in Italian Startups 🇮🇹
The first quarter has concluded, and we now have the initial assessments of the Italian startup landscape, as detailed in the VeM report and the Venture Capital Report by Growth Capital / ITA.
💶 The takeaway:
Both reports show a positive Q1 regarding fundraising: GC/ITA record €443m raised, while VeM stops at €357m.
GC/ITA counts 108 rounds, versus 52 from VeM.
GC/ITA also records 12 exits in the quarter.
As a matter of comparison, my TWIS tracker stopped at €399m, counting a total of 57 rounds.
🇪🇺 The look from abroad:
Dealroom chimed in, with a certain enthusiasm, through its Italian Tech Update, titling about two mega-rounds, new unicorns, and Italy becoming firmly a top-10 startup country in the EU.
🧐 YES, but:
🔍 Bending Spoons and MMI raised the 2 biggest rounds announced in the quarter, accounting for 50% of the total, but taking a closer look it is clear that something is still not clicking:
Bending Spoons embodies entrepreneurial success, but it has not pursued any traditional venture capital funding. Instead, they have secured capital from business angels, debt investors, and private equity firms.
MMI was established in Pisa and still has a strong Italian presence, but it is no longer an Italian company. While flipping a company abroad can be a desirable outcome for its growth, switching the HQs to a new country is not good news for the attractiveness of our ecosystem, even if we account for potential requirements related to the FDA approval.
📋 Finally, being #8 / 10 in a ranking of European countries does not sound that good.
Reading this week 📚
Cube Labs and Ftherapeutics 🇮🇹entered into a strategic partnership.
Cubbit was included in the latest GigaOm Radar for alternatives to S3.
An interview with Elisabetta Vesconi, from Planven.
A 🇮🇹new CEO for Milano Investment Partners.
New AI Index report from Stanford.
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Fundraising Tracker 📈
Ending Notes📝
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Have a great week,
N.
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