TWIS #269
Super week in Italian startups: Bending Spoons, Hercle, and RedCarbon raised capital. Bending Spoons to acquire AOL. Keyless to be acquired by Ping Identity.
Hello,
Welcome back to The Week in Italian Startups. This is Niccolò from Primo Capital: every week, I publish my curated list of the latest news from the Italian startup ecosystem.
The Money 💰
Bending Spoons raised USD $270m in a Growth round from T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, and Fidelity.
Hercle, a crypto infrastructure startup, raised USD $10m in a Growth round from F-Prime.
RedCarbon, a cybersecurity startup, raised €3m in a Series A round from Azimut Venture Capital Digitech Europe, Diapason Prime, and FND XI.
M&A🥩
Bending Spoons to acquire AOL following $2.8B debt financing.
Keyless to be Acquired by Ping Identity.
Reading this week📚
What is Bending Spoons? Everything to know about AOL’s acquirer | TechCrunch/
An 🇮🇹interview with Gaia Salizzoni, founder of hale (video).
Cortilia 🇮🇹accelerates its growth | Repubblica (paywall).
Intesa San Paolo, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, and Fondazione Cariplo to join the Scaleup Europe Fund.
Polymarket ban in Italy: ADM blacklists the website.
State of Subscription Apps 2025 | RevenueCat.
Jobs in Italian Startups🌟
If you want to share or more job positions relevant to the Italian ecosystem, fill out this form. Looking for a new job? Check out this link!
Startup Events in Italy🎪
Keep an eye on the upcoming events in the Italian ecosystem. Feel free to add an event through this form.
New events added this week:
Fundraising Tracker 📈
Ending Notes📝
Don’t forget to check out 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.

