Mangatar raises €1.1M in Venture Funding from Fi.R.A. and Invitalia and inaugurates the Smart Publishing Hub project

Through the funding calls StartHope and Smart&Start Italia, the Italian gaming company Mangatar begins a new growth phase with the goal to establish itself as a Publisher, valorising independent developers.

Fi.R.A. (Finanziaria Regionale Abruzzese) the financial holding company and Invitalia - the national Agency for inward investment promotion and enterprise development - invested together €1.1M in the gaming company Mangatar, through the funding calls StartHope and Smart&Start Italia. The latter takes the form of an incentive of the Ministry of Economic Development, managed by Invitalia, to promote the  entrepreneurial culture linked to the digital economy.

By virtue of the financial operation made possible by the StartHope fund, specifically aimed at supporting innovative enterprises operating in the Abruzzo region through participation in venture capital, Fi.R.A. enters the company shareholding, joining the startup co-founders and Digital Investments S.C.A. SICAR., the investment vehicle advised by dPixel. 

Rocco Micucci, the president Fi.R.A., said that several were the reasons why they chose to invest in Mangatar: a sector with great potential, a concrete business model, but also a dynamic team full of enthusiasm. As investors Fi.R.A. intends to contribute to the development of Mangatar, through the ability to create a new market starting right from Abruzzo. Mangatar has set up a new office dedicated to marketing and promotion in FIRA Station, a new acceleration and co-working space realized by Fi.R.A. and the Abruzzo region, in the heart of the city of Pescara, within the railway station.

Mangatar closed in recent years many (deserved) investment rounds, but this round of € 1.1M cannot be seen as a pure round.

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Meritocracy raises €500k in seed funding from United Ventures

Milan, 21 October 2015 -  Meritocracy, the platform that optimizes the recruiting process will use the raised funds for the development of the technology, to expand business internationally (especially in the UK) and establish itself on the market of software recruiting valued €1bn: these are the goals of the investment round of €500k made by United Ventures in Meritocracy.

Established in 2013 by Riccardo Galli and Alberto Manassero, former colleagues of Economics at Bocconi University, Meritocracy is a platform for employer branding that combines demand and supply of labor and allows companies to select the best candidates. With one goal: to optimize the recruiting process.

Thanks to a proprietary technology that is able to select the candidates who most closely match the preferences of the company, the platform automates the selection process and reduces the time and cost of recruiting activities. Meritocracy also offers businesses a platform for employer branding that enhances the user experience in the process of looking for work, attracting the best candidates.

Today there are several client companies that harness the potential of Meritocracy: among others, Tesla, Moleskine, Tetrapak, Samsung, GroupM, MoneyFarm and Dalani.

A market, that of software recruiting, which is worth

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ZesTrip raises €100k in seed funding

Milan, October 1, 2015 - After having helped Italian and foreign tourists facing the Milan Expo, ZesTrip is now preparing for the Jubilee, the event that will bring 33 million tourists and pilgrims in Rome. Now close to covering the whole Italian territory, it prepares to land abroad in the major European capitals. The combination of sharing economy coupled with the social inclination of the platform, which connects the locals with travelers, has also convinced a group of Angel Investors led by Stefano Calderano, currently CEO of JUSP (one of the few Italian startup that has received a venture capital financing with six zeros - read here), to invest over one hundred thousand Euros in the project.

The startup, incubated by PoliHub of the Polytechnic University of Milan, was born earlier this year by the idea of ​​Italian guys under30, Michele Arisi, Andrea Pasino and Carlo Vezzoni, friends since long time and flatmates in Milan, with a passion for travel, as well as sharing and innovation. An idea born from a personal experience. Indeed, the ZesTrip's founders had been traveling, backpacks on their shoulders, for almost two months in Southeast Asia through Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Once in Luangprabang, the capital of Laos at the time of French colonialism, they had a dinner invitation from the owner of their B&B where he introduced them to Vong. Vong, was a 30 year old Laotian and one of the few who spoke Inglese. He was smiling and excited for the chance to meet his Western peers. The connection was immediate, and by the time of dessert, they were Already planning to hike for the days to come.

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Octorate raises €500k in Venture Capital Funding from VC-Fund P101 and Business Angel Marco Corradino

Milan, October 1, 2015 - P101, the Milan-based venture capital firm led by Andrea Di Camillo, focused on early-stage investments in the digital space, and Marco Corradino, founder of Bravofly and angel investor active in the field of online travel, co-invested €500k in Octorate, the first Italian software company specializing in technology solutions for the hotel, bed and breakfast and accommodation facilities.

Octorate, born in 2012 from an idea by Fabrizio Scuppa, offers an integrated solution for accommodation facilities to manage the business of  online booking from the positioning of their offers on over 100 international platforms, thus ensuring the autonomy of hoteliers in the selection of the most efficient and profitable booking channels. To this, Octorate supports an expanded range of services for the management of the reservation and all related activities that enable individual hoteliers with a higher autonomy and efficiency in enriching the offer of even smaller facilitied. More than 7,000 accommodation facilities have to date used this solution by managing over €500M of online reservations and other services that the Octorate proprietary technology offers.

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Filo receives €500k in seed funding from LVenture Group

Rome, 1st October 2015 -  LVenture Group, a holding company listed on the MTA of the Italian Stock Exchange, announced today a co-investment with a total value of €500k in Filo, the startup that has designed and built a device that helps you keep under control your most important personal items.

The total investment  of LVenture Group in this transaction amounts to €100k.

The remaining amount comes from angel investors, some of which are part of Angel Partners Group, a group of angel investors of which LVenture Group is one of the founding members.

Filo is a small a tracking device all made in Italy that uses Bluetooth technology and helps you to find your personal items and keep control on them. Attach Filo to your keys, in suitcase, bag-pack or put in your wallet and through the Filo app, available for all smartphones, you will always know where  your items are. Indeed, the Filo app allows you to visualize the distance as you are approaching your items, to sound in order to localize them in a few seconds, and if you do not remember anymore when you did leave your keys or parked your car, Filo helps you to find them by visualizing the last position. In addition, you can track the associated smartphone with pressing the button on Filo. 

Filo took part in the acceleration program of LUISS ENLABS "The Startup Factory", accelerator controlled by LVenture Group and the result of a joint venture with the LUISS University. 

The new funds will be used for the expansion of the product on the domestic and European markets and to expand the team. In addition, the company will invest in research and development to launch new tracking solutions.

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