Jan 30, 2019

Italy’s angels & incubators weekly roundup. News from the Italian Budget Law 2019, Progress Tech Transfer Fund, FoodTech Accelerator, MyVisto, TechMass The Italian ecosystem for startups and digital innovation is energetic and may improve further its performance as Italian equity crowdfunding platforms may gain favour out of Italian budget law for 2019 that will allow SMEs to launch debt instruments campaigns for professional investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez ). This news arrives on top of a decision by Consob, the Italian stock market regulator, that last November raised from 5 to 8 million of euros the value for the public offers of financial products that don’t need to publish a prospectus. The European Investment Fund and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti  invested in the new Progress Tech Transfer Fund 40 million of euros of their ITATech platform that has resources amounting to 200 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez ). The fund aims at raising a further 10 million with a target yield of 2x the invested capital. Andrea Marcello, EIF investment manager, said that Intesa Sanpaolo could also become a subscriber. The fund for which MITO Technology acts as the advisor is managed by Francesco De Michelis (ceo of MITO Technology), Andrea Basso (former cto of MITO Technology), Michele Costabile (Teacher at Rome’s LUISS), Massimiliano Granieri (vice president and co-founder of MITO Technology). De Michelis said that the fund will focus on PoC (proof of concept) technology. ITAtech also invested in Vertis Venture 3 Technology Transfer; the biotech fund that Sofinnova and Telethon launched; and Poli360. FoodTech Accelerator shortlisted Italy’s ReOlì, Petzamore and FeatFood; Israelian Wasteless and Inspecto; and US Rise and Planetarians  for its startup acceleration program (see here a previous post by BeBeez ). FoodTech Accelerator coordinators are Deloitte, Amadori, Cereal Docks, Finiper, Innogest, Digital Magics, Seeds&Chips, Federalimentare Giovani, and Campari Group. The shortlisted startups will work for 15 weeks with the accelerators’ partners and their mentor and will receive cash for 20k US Dollars and services worth 50k US Dollars in exchange of a 6% stake in the business, and the possibility to receive investments worth up to one million of euros. The startups will present their projects to potential investors in May during the event DemoDay in Milan. ReOlì, based in Calabry town Corigliano Calabro, produces spreadable vegan olive and sunflower oil. Marco Almerigogna founded Petzamore, an on-demand petfood producer. Andrea Lippolis founded FeatFood in 2016, a producer of healthy food for athletes. Wasteless technology dynamically prices food in relation to its expiry date. Inspecto developed a portable scanner for analysing the eventual contamination of vegetables. Rise recycles the waste of barley from the production process of beers and makes flour with it. Planetarians aims to use 100% of sunflowers seeds for the production of flour. Myvisto, the marketplace where brands liaise with videomakers, raised 500k euros from Club degli Investitori  (see here a previous post by BeBeez ). Italian actor Luca Argentero and Paolo Tenna founded the company and appointed Giovanni Burzio, an associate to Club degli Investitori, as “champion” for Myvisto. Giancarlo Rocchietti heads Club degli Investitori. TechMass, a startup that provides digital tools for monitoring and optimizing the production process of manufacturing companies with the so-called Lean thinking approach, sold a 30% stake to auxiell and Gellify through a capital increase (see here a previous post by BeBeez ). H-Farm exercised a call option for a 3% of TechMass. Gellify connects software digital startups with traditional companies. Auxiell is a consultancy firm active in the lean transformation field. Andrea Massenz founded TechMass and will invest the proceeds of this transaction in developing the company’s team and organic business, as well as in R&D. A report of Arnaldo Camuffo, vice director of Bocconi University Invernizzi center for research on innovation, organization, strategy and entrepreneurship (Icrios), for Osservatorio Lean Thinking Icrios Bocconi says that the implementation of lean thinking may increase ROI by up to 3% and improve by 3.6% the net debt\ebitda ratio. Banco Bpm, auxiell, Assolombarda, and Club dei 15 (the lean thinking project of Confindustria, the Italian association of entrepreneurs) supported this report.