TWIS #276 - The last issue of 2025 🎄
Exein, Limenet, Haptena Therapeutics, ChemiChare, and TeachCorner raised funding. News from Terna Forward, Nexi, E4 Computer Engineering.
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 💰
Exein, a cybersecurity startup, raised €100m in a Growth round from Blue Cloud Ventures, HV Capital, Intrepid Growth Partners, Geodesic Capital, and J.P. Morgan.
Limenet, a startup producing carbon-free lime, 🇮🇹raised €7m in a Growth round from CDP Venture Capital and Fassa Bortolo.
Haptena Therapeutics, a biotech startup, raised €3m in a Seed round from Claris Ventures.
ChemiCare, a biotech startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.5m in a Seed round from CDP Venture Capital SGR, Bio4Dreams, and Bridge4Pharma.
TeachCorner, an edtech startup, raised €1.05m in a Early-stage round from Ad4Ventures, Urban Venture, Pamventure, and Clarkson Hyde Advisory.
Reading this week📚
Two new 🇮🇹investments for Terna Forward: Hibot and Hypermeteo | Startupitalia.
Nexi Rejects TPG’s €1 Billion Bid for Digital Banking Unit | Bloomberg.
ITALY: About 42% of teenagers turn to AI when they feel sad, anxious, or for life decisions | Save The Children.
E4 Computer Engineering issued first tokenized bond in Italy.
The AI Supercycle Has Arrived | Battery Ventures
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars | WSJ
2025 LLM Year in Review | Andrej Karpathy on X
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Fundraising Tracker 📈
Ending Notes📝
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This is the last issue of TWIS for 2025. It was a good year for the Italian market, all in all. Now it’s time to take a small break, catch some energy, and get ready to dive into 2026.
Happy new Year, dear reader, see you in a few weeks!
N.
Great job hitting 1.5B in the tracker this year. The Exein €100m round is impressive for embedded cybersecurity, especially with JPM coming in at that stage. I've noticed European cybersecurity startups often get undervalued compared to US peers despite similar tech, so it'll be intresting to see how they scale globally. The stat about 42% of teens turning to AI for emotional support is wild and probably signals a whole new category of products emerging in 2026.