BiovelocITA: Sofinnova Partners launches the Biotech Accelerator Made in Italy

Identify the most innovative projects in the field of biotech and turn them into real companies. This is the objective of BiovelocITA, the first accelerator dedicated to biotech companies Made in Italy launched by Sofinnova Partners, a European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences.  The idea is to bring together scientists, entrepreneurs and investors to promote the emergence and development of new innovative biotech companies. Even so, by deeply examining the startups' world, the biotech sector is very late. At least in terms of numbers. And an accelerator with a solid foundation can only do well.

Co-founded by Silvano Spinelli (Chairman) and Gabriella Camboni (CEO), the goal of  BiovelocITA is that to accelerate the feasibility study (proof of concept) of the most promising research projects and turn them into biotech companies. Silvano Spinelli founded in 2006 EOS, Ethical oncology science, a pharmaceutical company that it sold in 2013 - one of the richest Italian exits of recent years - to the US company Clovis Oncology for €357.4M. At the center of the business there was lucitanib, an anti-cancer molecule which inhibits the kinase, one of the key enzymes for the replication of cells. It is producing excellent results in human clinical trials against breast cancer and in 2018 it could become an approved and marketed drug. In 2014 it won the Wired Innovation Award as most innovative startup.

Now, along with Gabriella Camboni, also in Eos and even before, always with Spinelli, in Novuspharma, which in 2004 merged with Seattle, US-based, Cell Therapeutics with the subsequent listing on the Milan Stock Exchange, he wants to broaden the scope of the Italian biotech. Indeed, setting up a hub that allows "to bridge the gap that exists, in Italy, between good science and little application" . That's why they are launching an accelerator - not an incubator - to bring together scientists, entrepreneurs and investors (for now, private side, it's rich industrial) to promote the emergence and development of new innovative biotech companies.

The accelerator has already signed the first strategic partnership with TTFactor, technology transfer company that manages the intellectual property portfolio of three of the most important Italian research institutes: the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), the FIRC Institute for Molecular Oncology (IFOM) and the Monzino Cardiology Center. These last two are IRCCS, which stands for "Istituto Di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico" (Italian Research Hospital),  i.e. Institutes of hospitalization and health care science.

And already more than ten biotech projects are currently being studied coming from both the agreement with TTFactor and from other sources.

Parallel to the academic partnerships, the accelerator has started a fundraising campaign that has already ensured a financial availability of €6M (payable over the next few years of operations) funds raised from Sofinnova Partners and partly by a small group of private investors, introduced by Banor SIM S.p.A.

"We are facing a unique opportunity - said Graziano Seghezzi, Partner at Sofinnova Partners - the scientific level in the country is excellent and the number of biotech entrepreneurs is growing. BiovelocITA is able to exploit the moment, by integrating the three key players that characterize a solid biotech market: scientists of excellence, experienced managers and investors in the sector." The President of the accelerator, Silvano Spinelli, meanwhile, said that "Gabriella and I are pleased to return to work as a team with Sofinnova Partners. Together we have created and developed EOS and Novuspharma, two successful companies in the biotech sector. Thanks to BiovelocITA we will replicate the same experience, namely to transform a promising research project in a successful biotech company, but this time on a large scale. Ethical Oncology Science (EOS) is part of the history of Italian startups: one of the main successful exits of Italy.

BiovelocITA
BioVelocITA srl It is the first Italian accelerator dedicated to biotech companies. It was founded by Sofinnova Partners, venture capital market leader specializing in the biosciences that, in 40 years, has funded and supported nearly 500 companies. Thank to BiovelocITA entrepreneurs, scientists and investors can work together to accelerate biotech projects of international scope and reach the "proof of concept" that precedes the clinical phase. Born to provide innovative solutions to the medical community and patients, BiovelocITA will support the creation and development of innovative biotech companies in all therapeutic areas.

For more information: www.biovelocita.com

Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a European venture capital firm, industry leader specializing in the biosciences. With Headquartered in Paris, the company brings together 12 highly skilled investment professionals from across Europe, the United States and China. The attention of Sofinnova Partners focuses on highly innovative technological business models and visionary entrepreneurs. The company's goal is to operate as a founding partner and principal investor in start-up and spin-off businesses. In over 40 years, Sofinnova Partners has promoted and funded nearly 500 companies creating global market leaders. Sofinnova Partners has a total volume of funds under management in excess of €1.3B.

For more information: www.sofinnova.fr

Banor SIM S.p.A, a Milan and Turin, Italy-based regulated investment company, is an Italian consultancy boutique specializing in asset management and financial advisory to high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and family offices. With offices in Milan, Turin and, thanks to its subsidiary Banor Capital Ltd, also in London, Luxembourg and Lugano, Banor SIM supports since long time successful business families and currently manages assets in excess of €4B. 
Banor SIM S.p.A has recently been advisor for the IPO of Tesmec on the MTA of the Italian Stock Exchange and Industrial Stars of Italy and Initiative Bresciane on AIM. Banor sim followed as advisor the acquisition of the majority stakes in Barovier& Toso by DVR Capital and the sale of the majority stake in KD Pharma to Capiton.
For more information: www.banor.it/en/

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MailUp acquires 100% of Ad Pepper Media Denmark A/S and enters Nordic Countries

Milan, November 13, 2015 - MailUp S.p.A. (EMAIL.MI) (ISIN IT0005040354) announced the signing of the acquisition of 100% of Ad Pepper Media Denmark A/S, the holding company of the Globase International ApS, a leading player in Denmark in the field of email marketing.

Ad Pepper Media Denmark A/S has no other investments other than that in Globase International ApS  and does not carry out operational activities.

The price paid by MailUp S.p.A. for the purchase of the company amounts to € 880,000 Euro, consisting of cash (which amounts to about €400,000) and the valuation of goodwill, and the payment was made using the financial resources in the company. In conjunction with the acquisition Ad Pepper Media Denmark A/S has been renamed MailUp Nordics A/S.

Globase is a company founded in 1999 that develops solutions that enable companies to manage and improve communication and marketing campaigns with their customers across all channels. A proprietary innovative software platform coupled with professional consulting services for the development of customizations, dataset as well as the configuration and management of marketing automation flows.

The target market is that of medium-large companies in Denmark and the Nordic Countries.

The company has about 100 clients including Mercedes-Benz, Bang & Olufsen and 3M.

The new board of MailUp Nordics A/S consists of Nazzareno Gorni (Chairman), Matteo Monfredini (Executive Director) and Giandomenico Sica (Director), while the new board of Globase International ApS consists Nazzareno Gorni (Chairman), Thomas Jensen (Executive Director), Matteo Monfredini (Director) and Giandomenico Sica (Director).

Nazzareno Gorni, CEO of MailUp and Chairman of Globase, comments: "We are very pleased with this transaction. Globase is one of the leading companies in the market of email marketing in Denmark and the Nordics. Historically the company has always had brilliant results and last year, due to a series of delays in the launch of the new product "Data Based Marketing", it has achieved negative results going into a crisis situation. The company promptly launched a restructuring process, now concluded, which saw committed management throughout 2015 and whose beneficial effects are evident already analyzing the results to June 30, 2015, which closed with a negative EBITDA of approximately €120,000, a significant improvement compared with the negative amount of €807,000 as of December 31, 2014. In this scenario, we see a great industry opportunity in Globase.

We believe in the potential of the current management team, which has done an amazing job over the past 12 months, and we believe that, by providing the company with our suite of products (appreciated by about 9,000 customers around the world) and with our marketing know-how, we can resume a path of strong growth. For us it is a bet on a market, that of the Nordics, which is historically high spending, with a modest competitive pressure and where we believe we can be successful, in the perspective to continue our journey in non-English speaking markets, with focus on Europe and emerging countries."

About MailUp - MailUp (MAIL.MI) is a technology company that has developed a digital platform of cloud computing (Software as a Service - SaaS) chosen by SMEs and large enterprises to create, send and track newsletters, email and SMS. With over 25 billion messages sent every year and more than 8,000 customers (direct and indirect), MailUp is a leader in Italy in the ESP space, both for the number of emails sent, and for the number of customers. The platform is equipped with an extensive library of free web services to connect external databases, CRM, CMS, e-commerce, ERP, systems of web analytics and business intelligence. 700 retailers, including many abroad, have chosen to share with MailUp a culture of professional and responsible email marketing, fueled by competence, exchange and constant research. MailUp does not sell or rent email addresses. Established more than 10 years ago in Cremona, MailUp is headquartered in Milan and San Francisco through its subsidiary MailUp Inc.

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Italia Venture Fund I: €100M to back the Italian Startup Ecosystem

As innovative startups are engines to job creation, even the Italian government, in the wake of other European countries, has recently decided to deal with it and actively support innovative Italian tech-startups and SMEs by providing funding aimed to increase growth some of the most innovative and with a high growth potential startups. Just for this reason, the Italian growing startup scene has seen some help by government backing. Indeed, the Board of Invitalia Ventures, the asset management company called to implement this initiative, promoted by Invitalia, the National Agency for inward investment promotion and enterprise development owned by the Ministry of Economy, has recently launched a €100M venture capital fund named ITALIAN VENTURE FUND I, approving the fund regulations, officially launching the investment activities of the new fund to support Italian high-growth Startups and SMEs.

The ITALIAN VENTURE FUND I, a closed-end investment fund managed by Invitalia Ventures SGR SpA, the asset management company (Società di Gestione del Risparmio - SGR) called to implement this initiative, has an initial commitment of €50M coming from the Sustainable Growth Fund of the Ministry of Economic Development and entirely subscribed by the National Agency for Economic Development and inward investment attraction (Invitalia SpA). The ITALIAN VENTURE FUND I, which as already said has a funding target of €100M, will operate exclusively on a co-investment basis, with private investors, both national and international, with the aim of providing a significant financial support to the most innovative Italian startups and small and medium-sized companies, committing up to 70% of "Series A" investment rounds with a range of €0.5M and €1.5M commitment in the equity of innovative startups and SMEs, with a timescale of 5-7 years, and with one constraint: there must be at least one other investor, be it public or private.

The fund is headed by Salvo Mizzi, startup innovation expert, ex founder of Telecom Italia's Working Capital Accelerator, a program granting €20/25k to a some tens of would-be startuppers ,and later CEO of the Tim Ventures, the Telecom Italia vehicle for seed and early-stage investments in startups and eligible participation in successive funding stages.

The investment strategy will focus on high-growth sectors like: Internet & ICT, Logistics & Mechatronics, Biotech & Health, Clean Energy & Green Economy, Public Administration & Government, Social Impact and Sustainability, Food, Fashion & Life Style as well as FiTech.

On 4th September 2015 Invitalia Ventures launched, at the national and international level, the call to join its network of co-investors knows as Invitalia Ventures Investor Network, inviting qualified and professional investors to subscribe the ITALIAN VENTURE FUND I share for a total amount of €50M , in order to achieve the set target of €100M, taking a first (but clear) shape since it recorded in just few days interesting adhesions by major players of the venture capital industry including French Truffle Capital, one among the largest investors in Europe,Keytone Ventures a China-focused venture capital firm and Evolution Equity Partners, a Switzerland- and USA-based venture capital fund. The international actors joined sixteen Italian seed and VC investors with have massively applied. Among the sethere are LVenture Group SpA; H-Farm SpA; TBD Srl – Nanabianca; Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) the largest business Angel group in Italy, Siamosoci Srl (Club Italia Investimenti, the first pree-seed investment vehicle alongside Italian accelerators, Club Digitale, the first investment club for startups, Club Acceleratori, a Club Deal whose investors are accelerator); Digital Magics SpA, listed on AIM Italia (symbol: DM), is an incubator of digital projects that provides consulting services and acceleration services to startups and enterprises, to facilitate the development of new technological businesses; Strowlers Ventures Srl; Panakès Partners, a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, Vertis Sgr; United Ventures;, the investment company specialized in digital technologies born from the union of Annapurna Ventures of Massimiliano Magrini and JVCapital of Paolo Gesess, to shake up digital entrepreneurship by spotting and promoting disruptive innovations; Withfounders, the startup accelerator founded by Giulio Valiante; P101 SpA, an Italian venture capital firm focused on early-stage investment in the digital sector, Innogest Sgr SpA, the leading venture capital fund in Italy; DPixel Srl, the venture capital firm founded by Gianluca Dettori specializing in incubation, startup, seed and early-stage investment; Principia Sgr SpA an Italian venture capital firm with €80M under management (which exited Ethical Oncology Science EOS in 2013); and 360 Capital Partners Italia Srl which with €300M under management is a Venture Capital firm, investing in Innovation at full scale, in Europe and more particularly in France and Italy.

Positive feedback came also from major corporations like CLN Group, a world leader in steel processing and mechatronics, Gala, 4th largest Italian operator of the deregulated (free) energy market, but also Banzai, the leading Italian e-commerce operator and one of the most important digital publishers. At the same time, Invitalia Ventures, in order to ensure high deal flow quality, and to add value to these key partnerships essential for the development of the Italian Venture I Fund, entered into strategic agreements with leading Italian R&D centers like the Technological Pole of Navacchio, I3P, the Innovative Enterprise Incubator of the Politecnico of Torino, the largest Italian university based incubator and one of the best at European level, and Pni Cube, the Italian association of university incubators and business plan competitions.

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Exit: Principia sells stake in Docebo to Klass Capital

Milan, November 13, 2015 - Principia SGR, a Milan, Italy-based venture capital firms operating in the Internet and Medtech space, which joined the company with a seed investment of €2.4M, has sold its 28.74% stake in the E-learning platform Docebo to the Canadian VC fund Klass Capital which in July had already bought other shares of the startup founded in 2005 by Claudio Erba.

Principia SGR sold its stake of 28.74% in Docebo SpA, an e-learning platform of SaaS (Software as a Service) founded in 2005 by Claudio Erba, the entrepreneur who bet everything on technology combined with corporate training at a distance. Italy-based venture capital firms operating in the Internet and Medtech space, which joined the company with a seed investment of €2.4M, has sold its 28.74% stake in the E-learning platform Docebo to the Canadian VC fund Klass Capital which in July had already bought other shares of the startup founded in 2005 by Claudio Erba.

Principia's share was taken over by Klass Capital, a Canadian venture capital fund who already invested in Docebo in February when it made a growth equity investment of $3M to accelerate the growth of its SaaS enterprise e-learning platform and fuel expansion into the North American market. And it is not the first time that Klass Capital acquires company shares in Docebo. Indeed, just after only for months, in July 2015 Klass Capital decided to acquire Seeweb's shares in Docebo. Seeweb an Italian cloud, server and web hosting company is Docebo's first angel investor who supported the startup from the outset with an initial investment of €150k. Seeweb was the first to believe, and invest, in Docebo. In fact, Docebo used Seeweb Cloud Infrastructure during its transition to a SaaS business model. It only took a few years for Docebo to become a prominent international cloud software provider in the e-learning industry, which has paid off tremendously.

Principia SGR, instead, had entered Docebo in 2012 with a seed investment of €2.4M. Investment that has contributed to the business development of the company by growing revenue five times. And it is the rapid company growth coupled with Docebo's ability to scale revenues internationally that brought to increase the investment of Klass Capital in the company and to commit additional budget for future M&A operations. 

Present in more than 70 countries around the world, Docebo allows organizations of all kinds (especially large companies but also SMEs) to deliver and track processes of distance learning in real time. Docebo (Latin for “I will teach”) provides a Corporate Learning Management System (LMS) that enables organizations of all sizes to plan, deliver, track and certify online and classroom training activities. Docebo plans to use the funds to invest in its North American expansion and finance the continued development of its E-Learning ecosystem.

The Company is an international SaaS provider. Over 800 B2B clients use the system in over 80 countries worldwide (including Bloomberg Institute, Thomson Reuters, FreshBooks, and Autodesk among others) and it is available in over 30 languages. The Company has offices in the United States, Italy and Dubai.

The Company’s success lies in the ease-of-use and intuitive design of its platform, along with its proprietary sales and marketing process. Docebo’s ‘secret-sauce’ consists of a multi-channel customer relationship strategy and engine. Docebo’s system enables the team to ensure that all requests are followed-up rapidly and that customers’ needs are addressed by its highly qualified pre-sales teams. Thery are able to onboard and support customers virtually in an effective manner, which is essential for the company global strategy. Given the rapid growth of Docebo's business in the UK and North America in the past 2 years, the company find the partnership with Klass Capital highly strategic and aligned with its long-term goals and objectives for the global market. Docebo has always taken a user experience (UX) driven approach to developing its software, which stems from its design team’s culture – the design team being based in Italy. Its LMS is user-friendly and has a modern look and feel that is consistent across all devices, including mobile and tablet.

Most of Docebo's customers have very specific needs when it comes to their training programs. Docebo is the only Enterprise LMS that allows a highly modular approach to training implementation. Thanks to its proprietary web apps marketplace Docebo's customers virtually “assemble” the LMS according to their requirements, especially in self-provisioning. With this approach its customers benefit from increased usability and adoption, and hence ROI.

The sale of the stake has allowed the Principia to realize an IRR (internal rate of return) of 25% in less than three years. Certainly not a great result for a venture capital fund.

Chiomenti Studio Legale advised Principia SGR in the sale of the stake to Klass Capital.

About Docebo - Docebo is a Cloud E-Learning solutions provider that is revolutionizing the online training market with its SaaS LMS. Docebo has been ranked in the world’s Top 10 for SaaS E-Learning solutions providers, and in the Top 3 for B2B LMSs. Docebo is generally regarded as one of the industry’s most comprehensive solutions for training management, and has been chosen by some of the world’s most respected companies to achieve operational efficiency. For more information about Docebo, visit its website at www.docebo.com.


About Klass Capital - Klass is a growth equity firm established to provide expansion stage capital to high growth enterprise software businesses. The company’s target equity investment size is between $1 million and $20 million. Klass moves quickly, has a collaborative approach, and strongly believes in adding value to its partners. Klass has built a portfolio of 15 high growth enterprise software businesses. For more information about Klass, visit its website at www.klass.com.

About Principia SGR - Established in 2002, Principia is one of the leading Italian venture capital funds. Currently the company manages three investment funds, called Principia Fund, Principia II and Principia III - Health.
Through the first two funds - today fully invested - Principia has funded about 40 companies in the operations of start up capital and expansion capital (ie. early stage private equity) 

Principia Fund has completed its investment period and started the divestment process of the portfolio, which is today composed of a remaining investment. The fund Principia II, currently under management and development, had an investment strategy focused on "digital" and, for reasons of public policy (co-investor at 50% is DIT-DigItalia), invested on projects located in regions of Central and Southern Italy.
In the second half of 2014, Principia made the first closing of its third fund, Principia III - Health, raising €160M. Principia III - Health is the first Italian fund of Venture Capital and Growth Capital, specifically dedicated to the Healthcare sector. Principia III - Health acquires holdings both majority and minority stakes in target companies with high innovation content, including start-ups, industrial or academic spin-off, companies in expansion phase and SMEs. The selection of target companies is carried out between companies active in specific areas of the medtech sector. Main objective of Principia III - Health is to contribute to the development of a sector that in Italy suffers from the lack of financial support, although both characterized by the presence of high skills - and internationally recognized - quality.

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DrexCode raises €556k in Funding from Innogest SGR, Ligur Capital, LVenture Group and Fashion 22 for the European Expansion

Rome, November 13, 2015 - Drexcode, a Milan, Italy-based fashion rental platform, offering rental outfits and accessories from the latest high fashion collections, just raised €556k in the second tranche of a round close to €1M announced at the end of 2014. The investment came from Innogest SGR (€180k), the leading venture capital fund in Italy, Ligur Capital (€180k) the venture capital fund of the Liguria Region, €70k from LVenture Group, a holding company listed on the Italian Stock Exchange that operates in the field of venture capital and €126k from Fashion 22, the vehicle of the business angel group Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) led by Paola Bonomo and Paolo Marzetti). Of this amount €500k will be paid in the form of a convertible loan while the rest in the form of a capital increase.

Founded in June 2014 by its CEO Federica Storace and Head of Sales, Valeria Cambrea, two women with a decade of marketing experience in multinational corporations like Danone, Drexcode is a web luxury boutique where you can rent a dress or accessory of your dreams, all of high-end brand. A formula that works in Italy, even if placed more firmly on the high-end segment than its competitors.

Chairman of the board of Drexcode is Enrico Mambelli, senior advisor to international private equity funds for acquisitions in the luxury space and former CEO of Gianfranco Ferré in Milan and Cerruti 1881 in Paris. Among the shareholders of Drexcode there is also Michela Piva, international expert of the luxury fashion industry and ex CEO of important brands of the luxury market.

Drexcode is a web fashion dress rental boutique offering outfits and accessories from the latest high fashion collections, which became part of the portfolio LVenture Group in 2014, and has created an online platform for rental of luxury clothes, which offers a portfolio of high-end clothes and accessories from the latest collections of the most famous fashion brands.

"In 2014 the fashion industry increased by 2.7% in Italy, with overall revenues of €52bn and in 2015 it is expected a further increase of 3.8%" - said Luigi Capello CEO of LVenture Group - "at the same time startups in fashion space are reaching interesting results on the international scene and it is in this area that operates YOOX, the only Italian unicorn, i.e. a company with more than €1bn valuation. This is why we are particularly pleased to have invested in Drexcode, which has no significant competitors in Italy and offers a service at competitive prices and with great potential."

Drexcode offers various brand, from Alberta Ferretti to Giambattista Valli, from Zac Posen to Moschino, and only of the latest collections, that you can splurge for a special evening or event by paying only 10-15% of the price tag. To receive the dress simply register and choose the size, with the help of an online guide. You can also rent "without obligation": in this case you will pay only €20 for the trial, which will be deducted if you finalize. If you are not sure about your size, you may try a second dress for free, and if needed use of a tailoring service. At the end of the rental, which lasts four days, even the withdrawal of the dress is included in the price.

Drexcode's typical customer is a woman who has a lot of passion and competence for fashion and has a very active social life, so that she must be careful never to wear the same dress twice. In reality it is a win-win business for the brand, since Drexcode brings clothes in the right locations. The jaws have realized the importance of experiential marketing. And Drexcode is just investing in this. 

The company intends to use the raised funds to grow the marketing and development team to expand the business in Italy and abroad.

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MoneyFarm raises €16M in Venture Funding from Cabot Square Capital and United Ventures

Milan, November 9, 2015 - A significant step forward in the development path of MoneyFarm - the independent financial advisory firm that operates online, founded in 2011 by Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Daprà - receiving a record investment (for Italy) of €16M from the English fund Cabot Square Capital and United Ventures. The transaction has already received approval of the Bank of Italy and of FCA (the British Financial Conduct Authority).

The funds received by MoneyFarm with this operation will finance the development path of the company which is recording the growth of Italian customers by more than 20% month on month.

The management, in addition to consolidating its leadership in the Italian market by strengthening customer acquisition and product innovation, will focus on developing the company presence at international level. The company's goal is to become in the next five years the European leader for services of Digital Wealth Management continuing to combine technology, innovation and expertise in asset management to provide transparent, simple and efficient investment solutions.

The size reached with the capital increase allow MoneyFarm, and to Italy, to join more effectively in the effervescent international FinTech market and in particular in Wealth Management, a sector in full expansion that not only espouses finance technology but  has also created a new way of thinking about business. A recent study by Citigroup estimates that by 2025 the Digital Wealth Management will manage more than $5,000B in assets under management and guarantee the client a more efficient and automated wealth management. The success of these services is also attracting the attention of major international venture capitalists so that global investment in FinTech startup tripled between 2013 and 2014, jumping from $4B to over $12B (+ 201% against a average growth of 63% of other investments globally). Europe is the region that has experienced the largest growth of investments (+ 215%) in 2014. *

"We are particularly proud to have achieved such an important funding that will support us in our ambitious plans for future growth - declared the founding partners of MoneyFarm, Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Daprà - The trust given to MoneyFarm by a London-based fund, European "Mecca" of the FinTech space, is evidence of the growing interest by foreign operators and the great ferment taking place in the industry. We are ready and motivated to face the next important steps: further consolidation of the Italian market and the climb to the European leadership keeping in mind our history and especially the thousands of customers who have supported us so far."

James Clark, Partner of Cabot Square Capital, said: "the management of MoneyFarm has the clear vision of how to use technology to fundamentally change the approach of investors to the asset management industry. Combining innovation with strong ethics in the management of customers has allowed them to build a strong, transparent and long-lasting relationships with its customers. We are particularly impressed by the depth of the service offered to its clients by combining MoneyFarm ability of portfolio construction, execution of orders, the rebalancing during work progress and customized consultancy. The team has demonstrated the capacity of MoneyFarm of building a sustainable business and in constant growth for the Italian market and we are excited to support them in the implementation of a service equally qualified and of high level for the UK market. "

Concludes Paolo Gesess of United Ventures: "MoneyFarm is confirming our commitment to support Italian entrepreneurs with global ambitions. We are proud to have been the first to support the company in the development in Italy and still be the first to push it towards the European markets."

About MoneyFarm SIM S.p.A.

It is an independent financial services - registered at Consob No. 281 and the National Guarantee Fund No. SIM 0429. In August 2012, the SIM was launched on the web with MoneyFarm.com, paving the way for independent consultancy via the Internet in the Italian market. The company led by Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Daprà can count on a team of 35 professionals of qualified background and more than 50,000 active users. The mission of MoneyFarm is to empower people to manage their money in a simple and efficient way and offers a unique service in Europe that provides personal advice on ETFs and trading activity.

About Cabot Square Capital LLP

Cabot Square Capital is one of the largest investors in the UK financial services market with a broad track record of success stories of businesses able to create scalable businesses across Europe aimed at both the consumer market and the institutions.

About United Ventures

United Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on the digital sector. The fund invests in visionary entrepreneurs who develop innovative technological solutions, supporting them in the process of international growth through proactive processes of investment. United Ventures is led by a team that has extensive experience and a strong track record in the investment industry, entrepreneurship and management. In portfolio: MoneyFarm, AppsBuilder, LOVEThESIGN, Halldis, MusiXmatch, Bad Seed, Cloud4Wi, BuzzMyVideos, FaceIt, Kuldat, MarinaNow.

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Deporvillage.it raises in Venture Funding €500k from P101

Milan, November 3, 2015 - P101, a venture capital firm specializing in investments in digital and technology driven companies, has invested €500k in Deporvillage, Spanish leader in online sales of sporting goods focused on cycling, running, swimming and outdoor. The investment of P101 is part of a larger total investment of €3.7M, signed by some of the leading entrepreneurs of the Iberian venture capital ecosystem.

Deporvillage, founded in 2010 by the initiative of Xavier Pladellorens (CEO) and Angel Corcuera (COO), has experienced a strong growth over the past four years gaining leadership in online sales of sporting goods in the Spanish market. With expected revenues of over €10M in 2015, a team of 30 people, an average of 350 orders a day and more than a million visitors per month, Deporvillage aims to consolidate nationally, in Spain, and further develop in Southern Europe with a focus on Italy.

The investment in Deporvillage will allow the fund led by Andrea Di Camillo to complete the product range of portfolio companies and to support in Italy the entry of the Spanish company providing the know-how in the field of digital and e-commerce that P101 has gained in Italy over the years.

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