TWIS #209
Muffin, Recornea raised funding. Big round for Axelera AI. Italian startups shop abroad: YOLO Group, Unguess.
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.
Editorial note: I’ll be on vacation for a couple of weeks, TWIS will be back on the 22nd of July.
The Money 💰
Muffin, a fintech startup, 🇮🇹raised €3.2m from a syndicate of business angels.
Recornea, a medtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €150k in a round led by Scientifica Venture Capital.
PhotonPath announced an undisclosed round.
The Money, but abroad 💰🌎
Axelera AI, a Netherlands-based AI-chip design company led by Fabrizio Del Maffeo, raised $68m. CDP VC also participated in the round.
Terna Forward invested in Spain-based Unusuals.
M&A 🥩
Yolo Group acquired Kalibo Correduria de Seguros.
Unguess acquired Ferpection.
TeamSystem 🇮🇹acquired Change Capital.
TXT Group acquired I MILLE and Uasabi.
GeneralFinance acquired Workinvoice.
Reading this week 📚
From Harold Cohen to Modern AI: The Power of Symbolic Reasoning. (Wordlift)
As Spain gets its latest VC fund, Southern Europe appears to be on a roll (TechCrunch)
Crédit Agricole Italia 🇮🇹invested in StyleIT (il Giornale D’Italia)
Banca Generali 🇮🇹presented the first edition of the AI ECM Observatory.
A Few Things We Learned (Octahedron).
The “What, So What, Now What” framework (X).
🇮🇹Made-in-Italy software is a 3.5b market, employing more than 23.000 professionals.
🌟Jobs in Italian Startups🌟
If you want to have one or more job positions relevant to the Italian ecosystem listed, fill out this form. The positions will remain visible for 30 days at this link.
Startup Events in Italy🎪
Keep an eye on the upcoming events in the Italian ecosystem1. Feel free to add an event through this form.
Fundraising Tracker 📈
The TWIS tracker surpassed €500m in H1, but considering last week’s commentary, there is not much to be happy with.
Check out the full tracker in real-time on the TWIS dashboard!
Ending Notes📝
Don’t forget to look at the TWIS dashboard for the latest updates.
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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.