TIM Ventures invests €410k in Pedius

TIM Ventures, the company  of the Telecom Italia Group has made its first step in the venture capital space in support of the best digital startups and, along with Sistema Investmenti and Embed Capital, has invested a total of €410k in Pedius, the Rome, Italy-based startup that led by Lorenzo Ciaccio and with a team of 8 people, has developed a communication system that allows hearing impaired people to perform normal phone calls by means of speech recognition and vocal synthesis technologies.

You can use in your everyday life to make important calls such as booking doctors appointments or making reservations or to call family, friends and co-workers. Once you download the Smartphone app you can start a conversation by either typing or speaking a message. The person you are calling will hear this and reply, and you will immediately read a transcription of what he or she just said. 

Pedius gives you the freedom to have real-time conversations when you need to call a plumber, book a table at your favourite restaurant, or talk to you doctor. All this is done with full respect for your privacy because you're the only one who sees the communication between you and those you speak with.

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U-Start Ventures: a new VC Fund targeting at raising €30M to support Italian Digital & Tech Startups

Milan, 15 December 2014 - U-Start, a Milan, Italy-based global boutique advisory firm, founded in 2012, focused on direct and direct venture capital investments providing fully fledged services to private investors - family offices and high-net-worth individuals - corporations and early stage companies in the search for investment opportunities and companies at international level, has launched U-Start Ventures, the VC fund that will invest on early-growth stage companies in the digital & tech space. The fundraising phase aims to raise €30M by the end of 2015, although the fund will be operational when it will held the first closing expected by the first quarter of 2015 at €10M.

U-Start Ventures will make use of the expertise and resources of U-Start, which are characterized by a strong territorial trait: teams based in Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, Turkey, Mexico, Chile and Italy, that thanks to a thorough knowledge of the area and of the local players, offer advice to potential international investors by identifying and analyzing for them the most interesting deals on the market. Thanks to extensive and developed network of service providers operating in the territory U-Start may, in fact, provide support in the due diligence of the business, financial and legal, both locally and internationally.

According to a company note, the VC fund will

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D-Orbit raises €2.2M in VC Funding from Como Venture and Quadrivio SGR

Milan, 11 December 2014 - D-Orbit, young company operating in the aerospace sector and promoter of innovation and technological development aimed at mitigating the impending problem of 'space junk', cuts the ribbon of a new successfully completed investment round in its fundraising path. 

The company did involve in this round old and new financial investors: Quadrivio Capital SGR, which accompanied and supported D-Orbit in all its path since its birth, and Como Venture, one of the most active financial realities in the world Italian start-ups. D-Orbit raised €2.2M in VC Funding, respectively €1.95M from Quadrivio through its TTSeed and TTVenture funds (the Quadrivio segment focused on venture capital) and €250k from Como Venture.

D-Orbit, active in the development of decommissioning systems of satellites (i.e. systems responsible for the safe and controlled removal of satellites at the end of their service life), in just over three years has been internationalized, with a strong presence in Europe and the United States States, has qualified its innovative device, has signed promising partnerships of a commercial nature and has received recognition and support from space agencies around the world: among others ASI, ESA and NASA.

The company founded in 2011 by the idea of four young aerospace engineers, thanks to the support of the TT Venture fund (the segment focused on venture capital of Quadrivio), has, over the years, and with continuity, collected significant successes that have allowed it to become a small but dynamic company able to make deals with the big players in the industry.

The fundraising path does not ends with this investment round, but will continue in 2015 with the aim to attract more foreign and Italian investors.

Luca Rossettini, first founder and CEO of the company, publicly thanked Quadrivio for the support it has been able to provide in the recent years contributing to the company's growth, and Como Venture that will

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Digital Magics exits crowdlending platform "Prestiamoci.it" to norvegian TrustBuddy for €5.3M

Prestiamoci.it, the only Italian Peer-to Peer lending platform authorized by the Bank of Italy to manage a marketplace for online private loans, will merge with TrustBuddy International AB, the world’s largest, publicly traded, peer-to-peer company. Prestiamoci.it will leave the venture incubator Digital Magics, which will continue to support it in its growth phase.

The transaction, which involves the purchase of 100% of the shares of Agata S.p.A., the company that owns and manages the brand Prestiamoci.it, amounts to €5.3M: €1.5M will be paid in cash and €3.8M in equity (shares) of TrustBuddy. In addition, the shareholders of of Prestiamoci.it will receive 10 million options to purchase shares of TrustBuddy, at a share exchange ratio of 1 option to 1 share by 2018 and a strike price equal to 160% of the average price of the share in close proximity of the closing. The transaction is subject to due diligence and approval by the competent authorities and the closing will be made within two weeks from obtaining such authorizations. In this way Digital Magics and other investors of Prestiamoci.it, including many belonging to the Digital Magics Angel Network, will become majority shareholders of TrustBuddy.

TrustBuddy chose Prestiamoci for its proprietary technology platform and for the business model built in Italy, which TrustBuddy wants to replicate in other European countries. With the acquisition of Prestiamoci, once finalized, the Norwegian company will enter the Italian market through a holding company regulated by the Bank of Italy and will aim to accelerate its online development of long-term loans, thus further consolidating the European  and international leadership.

Digital Magics will continue to support the growth phase Prestiamoci.it with its

expertise and know-how. Digital Magics, acquired in 2013 a stake of 22.4% in Agata S.p.A. the company that owns and manages the brand Prestiamoci.it which was founded in 2008, becoming its largest shareholder.

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Espresso Group's Digital Division and Innogest SGR launch REinventures to back Italian Digital Startups

Rome, 5th November 2014 - Espresso Group's Digital Division and Innogest SGR launch REinventures, strategic alliance in the field of venture capital in order to finance and develop startups in the digital sector. REinventures will enhance innovative business initiatives by integrating, with a model without precedent in Italy, the experience of Innogest SGR - the leading Italian Venture Capital fund - with the publishing and multimedia expertise of Gruppo Espresso.

REinventures will provide selected startups with both financial resources and an average visibility and expertise to develop innovative digital products and services. The digital know-how and visibility offered by the Espresso Group and its newspapers will be crucial in accelerating the growth of the selected startups. Innogest SGR will also contribute to the creation of business opportunities for startups to raise capital overseas and to develop the management team.

Assisting entrepreneurs in the transition from an idea or from a small company to a global player by size is a quite difficult mission. Make extraordinary growth happen outside the US, China and a few other virtuous ecosystems in the world is even more difficult. We need capital, industry expertise, network of relevant people. If a primary group as the Espresso Group comes into play with the strength of its competences as well as of its size, and forms an alliance with the leading Italian operator in the venture capital space, then we are heading in the direction of providing business owners and startups the right resources to make a path of excellence and compete in the global arena. 

REinventures has an initial endowment of € 10 million to be invested over five years. The investment strategy involves

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Innogest SGR helds Second Closing of Innogest II Fund at €70M

Innogest SGR, the leading Italian venture capital firm, announced the second closing of Innogest Capital II fund at €70M (around $90M), out of a non declared target of 60-80 millions. Innogest Capital II is the second fund raised by Innogest SGR and fundraising will be closed next February 2015. Total capital under management currently amounts to over €160M (over $200M). New investors contributing to the second closing include the European Investment Fund and some leading industry experts in the firm's areas of interest, that joined existing private and institutional investors as well as the Italian Innovation Fund (Fondo Nazionale dell'Innovazione). The raised funds - €70 million - should be considered over a period of five years, i.e. as if the fund invests about €15 million a year.

Founded by Claudio Giuliano, the VC firm targets companies in the ICT/digital and med-tech space. Since its founding in 2007 the Innogest investment team invested in 24 companies, 4 of which through its new fund, and helped its portfolio companies in raising over 120 millions in co-investments. Innogest SGR is the leading Venture Capital fund in Italy with offices in Milano and Torino. Its investment strategy targets Italian companies with global ambitions, with specific focus on two areas of interest: ICT/Digital and Medical Technologies. Since 2007 the Innogest team has invested in 24 companies, 4 of which through its current Innogest Capital II fund, and helped its portfolio companies in raising over € 120 million in co-investments.

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Club Italia Investimenti 2 bets in the Italian smart parking app Parkey by providing seed funding

Club ItaliaInvestimenti 2 has invested in Parkey in a seed capital round. Parkey is the new concept of smart parking, a free mobile application developed by Cloud Park, the company that has followed the technological development of the app, available on the iOS and Android platforms, allowing drivers to find out free parking places on the go.

Cloud Park Srl has developed a unique integrated system, named Parkey, an app for iOS and Android devices, which based on Bluetooth 4.0 technology, once uploaded on an iOS or Android smartphones, in addition to identifying and obtaining any kind of information on city parking, not only allows each driver to find and navigate till any public or private parking, but moreover it transforms the smartphone into a remote control that opens and closes any access system to private and public parking. In the meantime, Parkey also executes the money transaction to pay the stop within the parking. Each parking access system recognizes each smartphone as a unique ID through Bluetooth technology installed into the access devices.

By downloading the app and activating the Bluetooth, in just a few simple steps you can locate the nearest car parking garage and reach it quickly, and even the payment for the whole parking time is charged directly to your credit card safely and quickly over your smartphone. With geolocation, you can find the nearest garage and find out if parking is available. By looking at the data sheets, you can

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Pilegrowth Tech raises €500k in seed funding from Quadrivio Capital SGR and Como Venture for the superconductor Made in Italy

Quadrivio Capital SGR - through its TTVenture fund -Como Venture which operates in synergy with ComoNExT business incubator, and the industrial partner LPE spa, after having believed in the entrepreneurial project with a first round held in 2012, took part to a new investment round Pilegrowth Tech Srl, a company operating in the semiconductor industry, by providing financial and industrial resources for a value of over 500,000 EUR. Leonida Miglio, founder and president along with Hans von Känel, founder and CTO of Pilegrowth Tech, commented that "the challenge is doubly difficult, both for the highly competitive sector at global level, and because undertaken at a time of economic crisis equally global, but the confidence and the courage of the investors are the best incentive to pick it up and carry it to success, with as much confidence and courage, even in contrast to the trend of despair that hangs in our country. "

Pilegrowth Tech has the ambitious goal to introduce a radical innovation in the semiconductor industry, based on a new solution discovered by two prominent scientists in Solid State Phisics. The project is based on the discovery of an innovative process that has gained the coverage of the prestigious journal Science and that allows the growth of different semiconductor materials on silicon without producing the "crisis of rejection" that the different atomic structures normally generate. Such technology would allow to combine the industrial and cost advantages of silicon with the performance advantages of high value added semiconductors. It is for example the case of germanium, which is deposited on a silicon surface without producing cracks and could be useful for packaging photovoltaic cells capable of converting solar radiation to higher frequency. This solution represents a major technological innovation: the difficult task of Pilegrowth is to turn this scientific breakthrough into a platform for innovative products (electronic devices to handle the power of many consumer goods, in place of silicon, high efficiency but lighter solar cells,  extremely sensitive and precise x-ray radiation detectors). 

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Cortilia raises €1.5M in Funding from Programma 101 (P101)

Milan, 5th November 2014 - Cortilia, an Italian Online Local Grocery Marketplace, chosen already by more than 500,000 users in Lomdarby with thousands of weekly deliveiers, announced today a €1.5 million round lead by P101, the Milan-based venture capital firm specialized in early stage investments in the digital space.  This new capital injection brings the total funds raised by the company since its founding in 2011 to €2.5 million and represents the first step of a midterm €5 million Investment Plan. The operator of venture capital P101 bets on Food Innovation with the startup Cortilia founded by Marco Porcaro, ready now to conquer new markets and expand the offered products and services.

P101 thus joins a pool of investors who have already bet on the company, providing not only fresh capitals but also a wealth of knowledge and know-how that will allow Cortilia to further develop its business and consolidate its market position.

"I am extremely pleased with this investment, which is the first step of an ambitious plan

we agreed with both the Company’s management and its shareholders," said Andrea Di Camillo, Managing Partner at P101. "Cortilia represents what an investor looks for in a start-up: a young and fast growing company, operating in a very large market with an innovative business model. Thanks to this investment and the resources that we are going to put in place, I believe that, in the medium term, we will able to turn this Italian story into an international success.”

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Ambienta announces final close of its second fund Ambienta II at €325M ($404M) to back european Cleantech companies

After the first successful closing at €147M reached at the end of October 2013 (read here), and the second closing held on 20th December 2013 at €200,2M (read here), Ambienta SGR, the Milan, Italy-based leading private equity firm in Europe focused on the environmental sector, has held the final close of its second fund, Ambienta II, at its hard cap of €325M (approximately $404M). The fund, which started fundraising in late November 2013 with a target of €300M, has exceed its target by 7.8 per cent with the final closing, that was substantially oversubscribed, and represents the biggest european fund dedicated to environmental protection. The Fund Ambienta II attracted a mix of international investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, funds of funds and family offices from Europe and North America. Backers include the European Investment Fund, Generali, HarbourVest, Hermes, Pantheon, RobecoSAM, Stafford Capital Partners, Unigestion and Zurich Insurance Group, as well as Italian LPs such as CNPADC, Fondazione Enasarco, Intesa Sanpaolo, Fondo Italiano di Investimento, and Poste Vita.

The fund will be managed by Ambienta SGR, independent investment firm founded in 2007 by Nino Tronchetti Provera, Rolando Polli and Mauro Roversi (all three founders of Ambienta), as well as by Stefano Bacci and Rudolf Ohnesorge, - supported by a team of more than 10 professionals. The Fund will invest in 10-15 companies in line with the AMBIENTA strategy, focused on an acquisitive growth strategy with targeted investments on cutting edge SMEs with high growth potential and able to make a positive contribution to optimizing the use of resources and reduction of pollutants (resource efficiency and pollution control). The historical scarcity of natural resources and high population density have allowed a number of European companies to develop great skills in these two areas and Ambienta seeks through a heavely engaged industrial approach to supports businesses in the process of management development and growth in global markets, turning them into international industry champions. Ambienta II will continue Ambienta 's strategy of

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