Musement raises €690k from 360 Capital Partners and IAG (Italian Angels for Growth) to expand internationally

Venture Capital firm 360 Capital Partners and the business angels network Italian Angels for Growth injected €690,000 in the italian, an interesting hub for the world of cultural tourism and art events.  The Milan-based startup has raised a total of 690 thousand Euros by IAG members, 360 Capital Partners and a third investor, amount that will be allocated to the development of Musement's app and platform, expanding the range of services provided, for the geographical expansion and strengthening of the structure and for marketing and communications activities. The startup showcases last 30th April, 2013 at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, introducing its unique service of its kind with the target to emprove users experience in cultural tourism and art events.

Musement.com - which allows access to more than 60 museums, archeological sites and theaters in 25 cities in Italy and which will launch by the end of 2013 its offer abroad (France, UK and USA) and mobility services thanks also to the agreement with Charta (www.vivaticket.it) and Teleart, the ticketing firms of the Best Union group -  is an Italian project, the brainchild of four entrepreneurs - Claudio Bellinzona, Paolo Giulini, Alessandro Petazzi , Fabio Zecchini - with the aim to bring together in one place all of the cultural market, which still can not "create a system". Its function is also to simplify the organization and thus improving the visit of many tourists traveling to cultivate their passions.

Read More

Club Italia Investimenti 2 backs Sgnam.it with €50k capital injection

The first italian pree-seed vehicle at the side of accelerators, Club Italia Investimenti 2 (Cii2) has entered the capital of Sgnam, a young Bologna-based startup, operating in the home food delivery space. injecting €50k in the company.

The web platform, also available on Android devices, allows to order food to be delivered fast at home, and all this in few click and time money saving, thanks also to discount actions. After having personalized and send the order, the restaurant owner receives it on an ad-hoc created app for the management of the orders, that in few seconds answers giving a feedback on the delivery time. Sgnam's app works only as intermediary between the client and the restaurant owners, and being a delivery-man-free system and being managed on the Cloud, everything is automatic and applicable everywhere.

Founded by Giovanni Cavallo (CEO and Founder), Lorenzo Lelli (CTO) and Alessandro Battaglia (CFO) and launched on the market on 28 November 2012 by after an initial testing phase in Bologna, Sgnam is now present also in Modena, Reggio-Emilia and Florence, with more than 5,000 active orders. At the speed of two cities per months, the company will expand to the remaining university cities, maintaining as target students aged between and 18 and 25 years old. At the moment the company counts 80 among bars, restaurants and pizzerias with more than 5,000 orders. And the most interesting information is the the percentage of users that reordered over the platform, are 43% of Sgnam visitors.

Read More

Prestiamoci raises €550k in seed funding from Digital Magics and a group of angel investors

Milan, 30th October 2013 - Prestiamoci the only Italian startup having a license, as holding company, released by the Bank of Italy for the management of a online P2P lending platform, has raised €190k as part of a €550k capital increase from Digital Magics, the certified venture incubator of innovative startups listed at the AIM Italia segment of the Italian stock exchange, along with Italian and international investors. Thank to the Prestiamoci web platform, investor can lend resources to private persons and companies in a very transparent way, with the professional skills in the credit management typic of the banking system. As of today, Digital Magics, holds 25,61% (€190k) of Agata Spa, the company under which operates the brand name Prestiamoci.

The operation saw the participation of different investors of the Angel Network of Digital Magics - which cooperate with the incubator in the startups' selection, mentorship and co-investment - as well as important private and institutional European and American experts in the field P2P lending on a global level. At the investment round took part also previous lenders who continue to support the business idea of Prestiamoci.

Read More

Ambienta SGR holds first close of its newly launched fund Ambienta II at €147.2 million.

Independent Italian growth private equity investor Ambienta SGR has held a first close for its latest fund Ambienta II on €147.2m out of a total target of €300m, less than six months post launch and above its initial first closing target, which would lead Ambienta to become the largest European fund dedicated to the environmental sector. The fund has considerable additional interest and anticipates further closings to be held in the coming months.

Ambienta SGR led by Nino Tronchetti Provera, with offices in Milan, Munich and London, is focused on the management of private equity funds which have as target companies mainly characterized by interesting growth opportunity whose development drivers are connected with themes like efficient use of natural resources, energy savings, pollution control and efficient  waste management/disposal. 

The closed commitments come from a broad range of investors, including existing investors re-ups, such as those of Intesa SanPaolo, Poste Vita as well as new Italian and international institutions. Indeed, approximately 44% of the first closing commitments in the fund Ambienta II has been signed by eight new European and North American investors, including the European Investment Fund, Credit Suisse, Hermes, Unigestion and some Americans and Germans family offices. Among the investors of this first round there is also the Italian Investment Fund, which has committed to €30m. This is the first commitment of the Italian Investment Fund to a private equity firm with a sectorial investment strategy.

Read More

When the stock exchange becomes "environmental-friendly": GreenItaly1 hunting for "green stocks"

VedoGreen, the company of the IR Top Group, providing financial solutions for green companies, together with Idea Capital Funds SGR of Dea Capital/De Agostini Group, one of the most important independent Italian Private Equity operators, that manages a green economy specialized fund, and Matteo Carlotti, already among the promoters of the SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) named MadeinItaly1, promotes GreenItaly1, the first S.P.A.C. (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) specialized in Italian green companies. 

GreenItaly1, was founded with the purpose to invest in the green economy which is a very attattractive industry for investors thanks its strong technological innovation and high growth

rates, aims to collect €40 million through the listing on the AIM Italia-MAC managed by Italian stock exchange, London Stock Exchange Group, in order to succeed in a merger operation with a target company within 24 months from the listing. GreenItaly1, will be supported by Intermonte as Global Coordinator and Nominated Advisor. The firm focuses its research on Italian medium-sized companies, operating in Italy and abroad, which are active in one of the following segments of the green economy classified by VedoGreen as follows: Agribusiness, Ecobuilding, Ecomobility, Environmental Services, Green Chemistry, Lighting Solutions, Smart Energy, Waste Management, Water-Air and Noise Treatment, White Biotech.

Read More

iDoo invests €211,000 in Eximia

 iDooo ICT Investments, investment holding company specialized in seed and early stage investments in innovative companies operating in the Digital Media and ICT space, has been represented by LCAangel investor in the  sector, announced yesterday has signed a capital increase of € 211,000 in Eximia, a company founded in 2003 that provides products, develops applications and solutions based on RFID technology. 

The investment includes a first tranche of € 100,000 from iDooo that was paid on the signing of the agreement and a second tranche of € 111,000 that will be paid by December this year. As part of the agreement is the divesture of to Pixope, a suite featuring the realization of 3D modules for advanced training of field operators and maintenance personnel in oil-related industries, to Eximia , which will develop through its subsidiary Virthualis, a company involved in the creation of patents and the development of advanced engineering technologies in the field of safety, training and maintenance of industrial plants.

Read More

Newborn Advam Partners sgr launches Advam1a fund dedicated to SME's debt

Advam Partners SGR announced yesterday the launch of its fund Advam1, dedicated to investments in debt instruments issued by listed and unlisted small and medium-sized Italian companies with 3-7 years duration, with a share of possible investments in corporate bonds of listed companies, covered bond banking, state securities and related ETFs .

The announcement was made simultaneously with the presentation to the financial community of the new asset management company, born from the integration of the historical asset management company Gesti-Re SGR with and Finn Investment Advisor SIM, a consulting firm specializing in investments and financial instruments. Advam Partners SGR so decided to debut with its first branded product Advam1 entering in the now quite fed audience of actors who want to take advantage of the market of the so-called minibonds. At this regard, Advam Partners SGR proposes itself with a consulting approach, in the offer of investment services: individual management, traditional and innovative funds approaching the development financing of enterprises. 

The management has indicated that investment targets are medium-size companies, with good ability to generate cash, but who have difficulty accessing the credit market. As a result, cases of companies under restructuring will be excluded. The management of Advam Partners SGR also added that the fund will not use tools of leverage. The first target is to raise €100 million on closing, extendable to € 200 million, while the first investments will be made by the end of 2013. To this end Advam Partners SGR aims to achieve a 5% return, net of subscription fees.

Read More

Angiodroid received €900k ($1.16M) in Seed funding from Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) and Zeta MetaVentures

Bologna, 23rd October 2013 - One more time a group of members of Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), the principal Italian network of angel investors, aimed at the field of medical devices and innovation result of Italian research. Italian Angels for Growth has indeed invested €900k ($1.16M) along with Zernita Meta Ventures (for the fund Ingenieum Emilia Romagna II) in the bologna-based start-up Angiodroid Srl, operating in the sector of medical technologies. This €900k could double if determined objectives will be reached commented Angiodroid CEO Sebastiano Zannoli to the financial newspaper "Il Sole 24 Ore".

It is a first round - startup investment aimed at developing new products and a business network in Europe, India, Canada, the Middle East, China, Brazil, Africa. As Michele Marzola, the business angel who coordinated the preparatory operations to close the investment from the side of IAG's shareholders: "Italy expresses excellence both in innovation and in the realization of new medical devices allowing to improve the clinical efficacy on patients and reduce health costs at the same time. Angiodroid is one of those Italian champions in a market in constant growth. The elements that persuaded us to invest in Angiodroid - continues Marzola - are combination the of an innovative product that is already appreciated in the halls angiographic with a team strong, which is characterized by scientific excellence and growth orientation of society."

THE TECHNOLOGY 
Angiodroid, founded by two brothers Sebastiano (current CEO) and Samuel Zannoli (software development manager), has developed a medical technology capable of automatically exploiting CO2 characteristics (carbon dioxide) as contrast medium for many different kinds of medical operations (operational radiology, vascular surgery and hemodynamics) in which are currently being used other chemical elements (in angiography usually iodine or iodine-based compounds). Angiodroid's innovative medical technology represent the first fully automated system to perform angiography that uses carbon dioxide as a contrast medium alternative to iodine, thus ensuring greater safety, particularly in patients with renal diseases, thus allowing a completely painless and safe exploration of the blood vessels, with excellent image definition. The funding will be used to develop new products and the sales network in Europe, India, Canada, Middle East, China, Brazil and Africa.

Read More

Chef Dovunque raises €1.2 million from Vertis Venture and three Angel Investors

Benevento, 21st October 2013 - Chef Dovunque, an Italian start-up picking up homemade and biological ingredients for Italian pasta dishes, by packing and distributing them in pre-measured kits, closed an investment deal worth €1.2 million with Vertis Venture, the venture capital fund of Vertis Sgr, and three angel investors, including WithFouders, a private holding company specialized in seed investments (start up without turnover). 

Chef Dovunque - headquarter in the industrial area of the municipality of Pago Veiano (Benevento's province) and with a commercial and marketing office in Milan - was born from the intuition of Antonio Ranaldo, a manager with a passion for cooking, who during his travels around the globe realized how difficult it is to buy abroad the right ingredients to prepare a classic Italian pasta dish. The first step was to patent his idea for register the trademark, followed by the selection in the whole country of artisan ingredients stemming from biological agriculture, obtaining thus the ICEA certification, the Institute for Ethical and Environmental Certification with 28 offices worldwide, 300 technical evaluators and 13,000 subsidiaries. After having identified the recipes that combine the best of traditional peasant simplicity and genuineness of the Mediterranean diet, having designed the packaging, a recyclable box that contains all the pre-measured ingredients and which can be easily stored and transported, Ranaldo has presented his project to institutional investors: the newco Chef Dovunque Srl was founded, with Vertis SGR entering in the company with an investment of €800,000 along with three angel investors participating in the operation with additional €400,000.

Read More

Atlante Venture and Digital Magics join forces to foster the development of the Italian Startup Ecosystem

Atlante Seed, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group Fund managed by the closed-end fund Imi Fondi Chiusi SGR dedicated to seed and Early stage capital, and Digital Magics,  the certified venture incubator of innovative startups listed on the Italia Stock Exchange Aim Italy, have signed framework agreement to jointly develop investment activities  in digital startups . 

The partnership aims to increase investment capacity for the startups selected and incubated by Digital Magics, ensuring adequate financial resources for their development. Atlante Seed will enter the Digital Magics Angel Network thus having the right to participate in seed rounds entering the capital for high growth potential startups, co- investing in companies proposed incubator. This operation is part of the indirect investment plan of Atlante Seed, who in July 2013, entered in the share capital of Digital Magics in the context of the listing of the shares of the company, on the AIM Italia segment of the Italian Stock Exchange. The Angel Network of Digital Magics has an active role in the selection and strategic advice of startups and new ideas: it assesses startups, submits the new projects the incubator - thus creating the birth of the dynamics of corporate venture capital - and offers its industrial skills and financial resources to facilitate the growth of the startups.

Read More

RetApps raises €350k from private investors

Smart Commerce Solutions provider RetAPPs, a startup specializing in innovative technology smartphones solutions targeting retailers, raised €350,000 funding in a first investment round with a group of private investors that includes, among others, Gianluca Andena, founder of Andena Holding (11%) and Guido Paolo Gamucci, founder of Bincot (11%) and, Marco Pittini and Guido Carissimo o f Vela Imprese (3%). The operation, which also provides an option for a second round of investment that could bring the stakes now totaling 24%, to increase to 40% in 2014, will allow RetAPPs to consolidate its presence in Italy and expand internationally.

A little over a year after its birth, in fact, are already four the Italian brands that have decided to adopt the SmartBip solution: Auchan, Coop Estense, Tigros and Conad Centro Nord. While Mobile Self Scanning developed by RetAPPs.

Founded in 2012 within Superpartes Innovation Campus in Brescia, Italy, which maintained the

Read More

Triliantic acquires a minority stake in Betty Blue

There is glamour which is resilient. And watches toward East. It is the glamour of Elisabetta Franchi a creative-entrepreneur from Bologna which in 1998 founded Betty Blue S.p.A., an italian company operating in the luxury premium fashion, clothing ready-to-wear and accessories market under the brand names Elisabetta Franchi and Betty Blue. Elisabetta Franchi has now opened up to the private equity fund Trilantic Capital Partner in view of a future listing on the stock exchange, in an agreement for the acquisition of a minority equity shareholding. With headquarter in Quarto Inferiore di Granarolo Emilia, in the province of Bologna,  where  back in 2009, with its business expanding more and more, the company took over the factories of a pharmaceutical company on the outskirt of Bologna, establishing a structure of 6,000 sq. m nested in greenery, Betty Blue employs 150 persons.

On the value of the transaction there is utmost discretion, but to get an idea of the numbers of Betty Blue just think that in 2012 the company had revenues of approximately €105 million with an EBITDA of roughly €26 million and for year 2013, the Bologna-based company expects to close the financial year with results in further growth. Based on the results of the company it is expected

Read More

Redbrick Capital Partners and Emisys Capital SGR: two new funds in the italian private equity space

In the complex financial and economic situation which is affecting, without distinction, all sectors and typologies of firms, italian SMEs can now rely on two new sources of capital sources. The first born from two teams of operators specialized in mezzanine financing, AF Mezzanine and Mezzanove Capital, which came together to give life to Emisys Capital SGR, and launch the new closed-end investment fund Emisys Development, to support the development plans of italian small and medium enterprises, by leveraging in hybrid products including mezzanine financing, convertible loans, participation preferred stocks and minority stakes in form of ordinary stocks. It is a very innovative investment strategy for the italian market, able to give an effective answer at the raising need of development capital. Emisys Development will invest in established companies - that have a solid economic-financial profile - in different industrial sectors with an horizon of medium-long term and commitment ranging between €5m up to €12m on each transaction. Backing of startup companies as well as turnaround operations are strictly excluded. 

Emisys Capital sgr, previously AF Mezzanine counts among its shareholders: 

Read More

Synergo exits CastFutura to Star Capital

Synergo SGR has exited CastFutura to Star Capital SGR, which valued the company at €25 million included its debt. The operation was revealed by MF - Milano Finanza. The operation ended at 4 times the consolidated EBITDA of 2012, equal to €6.7 million (from 6.2 in 2011) against a turnover of €51.5 million (from 55.2 million in 2011) and a net financial debt of €15.7 million (from 24.2).

CastFutura , which produces components for the domestic gas cooker and heating sector, is in the Synergo portfolio (with 73.94% of the capital), since the company  followed the funds of BS Private Equity sgr, which in turn had invested in 2005 in the company group. The divesture, started more than a year ago, saw at the beginning tighten negotiations with the German EGO group - an international high-tech company and one of the leading global manufacturers of domestic appliance technology, components and products - but at the end it went awry.

CastFutura was acquired by

Read More

Red Circle Investments acquired 15% stake in Fubles

Last 8th October Red Circle Investments, the holding company of the Rosso family entered with a 15% share in the capital of Fubles, the Milan-based startup, that in a few years has become a reference for those who want to organize and play their football games. Indeed, Fubles.com is a Sport Sharing platform that most efficiently helps you organize amateur sport matches of all types. So far one of the most active community for pick-up games and the dynamism of the social network for soccer lovers matches with the values ​​of the investment fund of the Rosso family, which owns the brand Diesel. The numbers testify the growth of start-up that now counts more than 300,000 players and more than 70,000 games played mainly in Italy. The goal is not only to increase the number of users in the Italy, but also to export the passion for football abroad, considered that football is the most practiced sport worldwide and that the majority of games are played in fields which are smaller the those for football games with 11 players, and therefore there is no necessity to create a new need but just to export a "new way" to satisfy this need.

Oh the amount of the deal there is utmost discretion. In 2011 the company raised €300k in angel funding,

Read More

Maketank is the winner of the Techgarage startup contest 2013

MakeTank is the startup winner of Techgarage, the startup contest reserved to the best 18 business projects selected by Barcamper Makers Tours, which took place on 4th October in Rome, in occasion of the first european Maker Faire.

In front of a public of experts, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, journalists and bloggers of sector, Laura De Benedetto, co-founder of MakeTank, has passed the first selection arriving in final, and only woman left in competition, won the aspired Maker Robot, the trophy realized ad-hoc by the technological artisans of Roland DG, which has been delivered directly by Riccardo Luca and Gianluca Dettori.

Winning this prize is the confirmation that replies to the need of european makers: the possibility to have at their disposal a showcase to manage in full autonomy, by making part

of a marketplace dedicated to their innovative products. The mission of "MakeTank" proceeds is to render each maker entrepreneur of himself, transforming his passion in a sustainable business. What the future holds for MakeTank? After this pitch in front of investors, the founder wishes herself, that apart the prize, interesting contacts will come favoring the evolution of the project at international level. 

MakeTank is a multivendor marketplace born in Florence in 2012 where Designer and Makers can sell their works and products in autonomy in the whole world. The company recognized that the next wave is handmade and that new technologies - especially 3D printing, lasercut, Arduino and CNC - allow a new type of handmade to emerge, one with an eye for beautiful design as well as function. It combines the handcrafted tradition with the Digital Fabrication to offer the audience with intelligent, innovative and esthetically nice objects to furnish the house in an original way and making an exclusive present.  

Read More