TWIS #296
Lexroom, Cosmico, Quantum Bridge Technologies raised funding. Anthropic to open a Milan office. Recordati to receive a 10.7B acquisition bid.
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 💰
Lexroom, an AI-first legaltech startup, raised USD$50m in a Series B round from Left Lane Capital, Base10 Partners, Eurazeo, Acurio Ventures, Entourage, and View Different.
Cosmico, an HR-tech startup, raised €12m in a Growth round from P101 SGR, and Prana Ventures.
Quantum Bridge Technologies, a quantum security startup, raised €8m in a Series A round from Primo Capital SGR, Wayra (Telefónica), Cadenza VC, Club degli Investitori angels, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital.
K-Sport, a sports-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount in a round from Rialto EuVECA (AVM SGR), venture capital, high-net-worth individuals, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Money, Italians in the world 💰
Invertix, a Germany-based, AI-first, solar asset management startup, raised €1.7m in a Pre-seed round from Vireo Ventures, and Italian Founders Fund.
M&A 🥩
CVC, GBL launch €10.7 billion bid for Italian drugmaker Recordati.
Reading this week📚
Practices of European and American venture capitalists: homogeneity and heterogeneity at work | Small Business Economics.
Enrico Poli (Zanichelli Ventures) 🇮🇹on their investment in Gyver | EconomyUp.
FoolFarm 🇮🇹becomes an AI startup, abandoning its venture studio origins | StartupBusiness.
🇮🇹9 Italian business angels in Top 50 investors & lenders by Sifted | StartupBusiness.
Anthropic to open Milan office, expanding push into Europe | Reuters.
🇮🇹Sifted 100: Southern Europe, strong presence of Italian Life Sciences startups. | Innlifes.
AI Eats the World | Benedict Evans
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Ending Notes📝
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N.
About Quantum Bridge Technologies, I would say that is the classical case where the market isn't ready but the risk is live.
I have no wonder why VCs are attracted, it is basically an asymmetric bet.
Curious how they are approaching the enterprise GTM given most security buyers still don't have quantum on their radar.