Friday, February 19, 2016

United Ventures becomes SICAF authorized by Bankitalia: Closing at €70M

One of the first SICAF funds in Italy, following the introduction into the Italian legal order allowing the establishment of alternative closed investment funds in corporate form, has born. United Ventures obtained by the Bank of Italy on 17 February 2016 the authorization for the establishment of an asset management company, i.e. United Ventures One SpA to operate as hetero-managed venture capital SICAF (investment company with fixed capital) managed by United Ventures Spa, that as advisor of the holding, becomes asset management company authorized by Bankitalia and recognized as manager by EUVeCa.

 United Ventures, born as an investment holding company and turned into SICAF following the implementation of the AIFMD in Italy, was founded in 2013 by Paolo Gesess and Massimiliano Magrini respectively founders of JV Capital and Annapurna Ventures, the company had launched the fund raising in early 2013, thanks to the sponsorship of the Italian Investment Fund, which invested the first €10M, contributing for one third of the first closing held in March 2013 having reached €30M. In November 2014 it was announced the first closing at €60M. The company and makes early stage investments in Venture Capital, with a focus on digital technologies. Following the completion of the subscription of a capital increase that will occur in the coming days by leading institutional investors, its assets under management will amount to over €70M.

In its new role, the venture capital vehicle can continue to operate on the market as required by the new European Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), which entered into force on 21 July 2011. The law introduced a number of measures to create a European internal market for alternative investment fund managers by defining a framework for the authorization, ongoing operation and transparency of the funds.

The transposition of legislation allows to United Ventures to operate in an international market positioning itself as a leading player by raising capital from both Italian and foreign investors because it is subject to an international legislation that equalizes and unifies all the other European players in the sector.

For Italy it is a significant change because it marks the introduction of a new investment vehicle model alongside that of SGR (asset management company) and the classic Club deal (private savers communities that invest using ad-hoc platforms).

The authorization process that ended with the authorization given by the Bank of Italy to United Ventures also enhances the work of internationalization that the fund management company, United Ventures Spa, has so far constructed by raising €70M in capital and investing in 16 companies (including Appsbuilder, Badseed, BuzzMyVideos, Cloud4Wi, FaceIt, Halldis, Kuldat, 20Lines, Marinanow, Meritocracy, Moneyfarm, Musixmatch, Paperlit and Lovethesign) that starting from Italy are able to operate globally. Investment targets are companies based in Italy but also in the rest of Europe operating in the areas of digital technologies, software, mobile, e-commerce and gaming.

The goal of United Ventures is indeed to support active entrepreneurs in the software industry and digital technologies in the growth and internationalization process, operating in the world's major technological ecosystems thanks to a network of co-investors located in global innovation centers.



Studio Craca Di Carlo Guffanti Pisapia Tatozzi & Associates (5Lex) has assisted United Ventures in obtaining authorization. The team was led by Francesco Di Carlo and composed of Giorgio Bobba.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Smartika completes €4.52M capital increase led and structured by Hamilton Ventures

Milan, January 29, 2016 - The italian Social Lending platform Smartika has announced a capital increase of €4.52M. The deal, already approved by the Bank of Italy, has been coordinated and structured by London-based Hamilton Ventures, a merchant banking boutique focused on investment in Tech and FinTech sectors and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The new resources will be used for investments necessary for growth and to consolidate the leadership of
Smartika in the Peer to Peer Lending in Italy, the alternative way to borrow and lend money between individuals.
"New forms of economy and finance, based on the combination of Internet-sharing, are taking place in our country and, at a time where personal loans amount to €25 billion, of which €1.3 billion is granted online, thinking that the total throughput of the private loans will expand in the next 2-3 years to €300M is more than realistic" said Maurizio Sella, Chairman of
Smartika.
The capital increase was also the occasion for the definition and formalization of the new Governance of Smartika:
Maurizio Sella as Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Luciano Manzo as CEO.Directors: Tommaso Pompei, Gustavo Perrotta, Pierluigi Loy Donà, Stephen Andrew Fitch, Pierpaolo Guzzo.
"The new resources that Smartika will benefit from, thanks to this important capital increase" adds CEO Luciano Manzo "are intended to strengthen the leadership of our platform for
private loans thus strengthening its organizational structure, in particular by strengthening the IT, the Credit, Communications and Marketing departments. "
"A very interesting and certainly 'disruptive' reality in the financial sector, with a management team with proven experience. With great enthusiasm, we stand alongside a company in constant growth and with important perspectives, "said Gustavo Perrotta, CEO of
Hamilton Ventures. 
Smartika announces so the beginning of a new course, which aims to disseminate and promote in Italy the culture of Social Lending, i.e. a step towards abandoning traditional forms of intermediation and in pursuit of greater efficiency and convenience for all parties involved .
Smartika SpA Spa, a company founded in 2012 with headquarters in Milan, works in Social Lending as a Payment Institution regulated and supervised by the Bank of Italy, as financial operator authorized pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 11/2010 to provide payment services, disbursed on education of providers and the applicants.
 
Hamilton Venture Capital Ltd ("Hamilton Ventures"), founded in 2009 and based in London, is an independent merchant banking boutique active mainly in the Technology and FinTech space. The company, regulated by the FCA, is led by Gustavo Perrotta and Sir Peter Middleton and offers privileged access to investment opportunities internationally.More information about it on www.hamiltonvc.com

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Faceit raises $15M in Series A Funding Round from Anthos Capital, Index Ventures and United Ventures.

Faceit, a British startup that operates an online multiplayer platform, has closed a  $15M Series A funding round and is now aiming to expand in the United States.

Backers include Anthos Capital (Menlo Park, CA), Index Ventures (San Francisco, CA) and United Ventures (Milan, Italy) arriving after Faceit raised $2M last year from United Ventures. The company said it will use the investment to expand its team and continue to improve the technology and platform.
Faceit this month has opened an office in Los Angeles, aiming to achieve partnerships with developers, publishers and other partners based in America.

Founded in London in 2012 and led by CEO Niccolò Maisto, COO Michele Attinasi and Alessandro AVallone Chief Gaming Officer, Faceit is an online gaming platform allowing players to participate in tournaments and leagues with prizes through match making and management of automated tournaments. Its active users compete in at least 3 or more games per day. For developers the company offers a software development kit (SDK) to integrate into matchmaking and tournaments of their titles to allow players of all levels to participate in the competitive online gameThe company claims to have over 3.5 million gamers on its eSports platform. 

"With these investments, we will be able to achieve three major objectives for the platform: a strong community for competitive players and organizers, easy deployment for developers and for the personalization of the brands linked to products and services" Niccolo Maisto, founder and CEO of FaceIt says announcing investments.

Last year Faceit worked with several partners of the ecosystem of eSports, including Twitch of Amazon, Valve and Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting and WME/IMG, which formed its online-gaming league, ELeague, and plans to broadcast it on TV.

"Faceit has demonstrated the ability to build successful partnerships with publishers, large media companies and other leaders in the field." Index Ventures partner Ben Holmes, said in a statement.

Friday, January 22, 2016

D-Eye raises €1.5M in Venture Funding from Innogest, Invitalia Ventures and the Cottino Foundation

InnogestInvitalia Ventures, Foundation Cottino, with Si14, the current shareholder of the company and managers, have invested €1.5M in D-Eye, a Padua, Italy-based startup that has developed a patented optical device, compatible with most of the smartphones on the market, which allows the examination of the retina using the camera and the lighting system where each device is already equipped.

Born thanks to the intuition of ophthalmologist Andrea RussoD-Eye is proposed as a platform to revolutionize screening of retina diseases and the follow-up of millions of patients affected by chronic pathologies, making it possible to track, sharing and the compare retinal images collected through a simple smartphone equipped with the optical D-Eye. In addition to the device developed, the D-Eye solution provides the use of a proprietary app and a cloud platform through which the user can manage its own database of images according to the standards of HIPAA security and access sharing services and analysis of the same.

With this solution, D-Eye aims to position itself as a benchmark in the market for ophthalmic diseases - from the Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Macular Degeneration), whose treatment costs each year more than six billion dollars worldwide - a sector hunting innovation at the service of screening, access to care, quality and adequacy of follow-up.

In 2015, with the support of engineering pole Si14 of Padua, the company completed the development of the hardware and initiated the creation of the cloud platform through which services will be provided in support of doctors and patients. The introduction in the next few months of the cloud technology enables complete the D-Eye solution made up today by the device and the app, already bought and tested by over a thousand of doctors worldwide, making it an indispensable tool for professionals who deal daily with illnesses of the retina.

To lead the company is CEO Richard Sill, who has an extensive experience in the corporate sector such as Bausch&Lomb, and later co-founder and CEO of Magellan, one of the first companies to realize GPS satellite navigation dedicated to the consumer market. The operations and research center of D-Eye is based in Italy, Padua, while the commercial and business development are located in the United States, in close contact with the strong demand for innovation in the industry, and numerous clinical studies will be brought out in collaboration with research centers and universities around the world.

D-Eye is the first investment of the Italian Venture I Fund and reflects the fund mission to focus on startups that have a major positive impact on the lives of people and the ambition to grow internationally. The intersection between digital and health is one of the key areas where Italian innovation has the opportunity to express large-scale projects. D-Eye has the potential to play this game. 

The market which the D-eye solution addresses is not a niche, as it target itself as a complement to all the other tools already present in clinical ophthalmology and its flexible nature ensures applications also in other contexts. The potentials of doing business that D-Eye looks at translate it into the target (certainly ambitious) to become a benchmark in the field of ophthalmic diseases, starting with macular degeneration, a chronic disease of the retina, whose treatment costs globally more than six billion dollars a year and that in Italy is worth between 400 and 500 million Euros.
The immediate challenge is to integrate mobile services D-Eye in routine activities of all those involved: patients, doctors, health workers, optometrists, pharmaceutical companies and even insurance and bodies public reimbursement. The second step is to make the solution a screening platform and remote monitoring that can also be used in other fields of medicine, from the dermatological to that otorhinolaryngological one. The D-Eye technology, in this sense, allows tracking and sharing of images generated by smartphones through an app (already purchased and tested for over a thousand doctors worldwide) and a cloud system that enable the 'access and analysis of data collected in a dedicated database. In the coming years new financing round are to be expected.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Get Your Bill receives €390k Seed Funding from Aldabra Capital and Italian Angels for Growth (IAG): valuation at €1.9M

Two investors support the start-up company from Udine (Italy) Get Your Bill, the invoicing software using the POS terminal, receives a financing of €390.000 and is valued at €1.9 million Objective: expand across the Italian market. Many advantages for all stakeholders in the value chain.
Udine, January 12, 2016 - Ultroneo, the start-up company that created Get Your Bill, has attracted its first investors. The software enabling the issuing  of invoices through the POS terminal has obtained the support of a group of members Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), the main business angel group in Italy,  and of Aldabra Capital: the 2 entities have invested jointly €390,000 for 20,7% of the shares, valuing the company at €1,900,000. A very encouraging result for a company born in 2014 and active in the busy world of the payments industry. Get Your Bill led by Alvise Abù-Khalil, - President of Ultroneo - uses the standard POS terminal of the merchant, identifies the buyer through his payment card and collects from a database in cloud, in just a couple of seconds, the necessary information for the preparation of an invoice: company name, address, VAT number...The application sits on the POS next to the payment application and is compliant with the EMV security requirements. Get Your Bill, also offers a centralized archive of invoices to enable an easier administration”.
The entry of the Business Angels of (IAG) and Aldabra Capital enables Ultroneo to realize its IT plan, which will enrich the basis version of the platform with new functionalities, as well as the marketing plan that will drive Ultroneo into the leadership on the Italian market. Carlo Asquini, the representative of IAG, who has  strongly supported the investment and Renato Giacobbo Scavo, the CEO of Aldabra and expert of financial services, have both expressed their satisfaction.
“The commercialization of the service has started in October – tells Nicolas Ancot, the Marketing Director of Ultroneo with an important experience at Visa - and the business model is designed in a way that it is the  acquiring bank that sells the service to its merchant.
Initially supported by the incubator Technoseed of  Friuli Innovazione - the research and technology transfer center of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia -, Ultroneo has already signed agreements with Consorzio Triveneto (supplier in payments services for various banks among which Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Monte dei Paschi di Siena) and Easy Nolo (payments operator for Banca Sella). Agreements with the other Italian payments operators are well advanced.” Get Your Bill offers advantages to all users of its service and to all actors in the invoicing value chain:
  • The buyer: tax savings (possibility to deduct more invoices and recover VAT on them, even for smaller amounts), speed (no more queues at the cash register), simplicity (all invoices available in cloud, for an easier and more automated administration), security (secure archive of the invoices), access (through smartphone or any other device).
  • The merchant: simplicity (no more queues and waste of time at the cash register for invoices, all invoices available in cloud for an easier and more automated administration), advantageous (possibility to make the customer loyal through a service that is both useful and free).
  • The banks and payment schemes: the possibility to offer Value Added Services to more merchants and customers, enabling thereby the use of electronic payments.
  • The accountants: simplification of all the accountancy, through a system in cloud that is simple, secure, fast and structured.
Ultroneo:
Ultroneo s.r.l. is an Italian innovative start-up. Founded in 2014, the company is partly owned by a spin-off of Udine University. The company mission is the creation of innovative services, in Italy and abroad, capable of adding value to the payment transactions. Get Your Bill, the fast lane for your invoice, is the first service to be proposed by Ultroneo s.r.l. and is a registered mark.

Aldabra Capital operates since 2011 as a financing holding for innovative startups for early stage investments. Its industries of reference are electronic payments (2 investments), digital transformation (3 investments), data management (2 investments) and hi-tech (2 investments). The management team of Aldabra supports the start-ups in a very direct and operational way, leveraging on its experience, its network and various professional services (legal, marketing and management control).

Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) is the major angel group in Italy. It was founded by nine business angels in 2007 and has today more than 120 partners representing one of the most solid associations of European angel investing.
IAG has developed through its partners and the involvement of other operators, investments in  venture capital for about €24M divided into 43 rounds of investment.
IAG partners have contributed to the birth and growth of 28 innovative ventures, excellence in research, technological development and entrepreneurial Italian spirit including  Angiodroid, Agroils, Biogenera, Cellply, Drexcode, Eugea, GreenBone, GipStech, Inventia, Lovli, Margherita Fingerguard, Musement, Ohikia, ProxToMe, Qurami, SediciDodici, Spreaker, Winmedical.

Monday, January 11, 2016

E-Health: Atlantis Ventures and Innogest join $10M Funding Round in Pi-Cardia with other Foreign Investors

Atlante Ventures, the fund of the Intesa Sanpaolo group dedicated to venture capital, and Innogest, currently the largest Venture Capital firm in Italy focused on seed and early-stage ventures with more than €170 million under management, announced their participation to a $10 million investment round on Pi-Cardia Ltd, an Israeli medical device start-up company developing a novel low profile catheter for the treatment of aortic stenosis. Backers include also Chinese fund VI-Ventures and existing investors Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd, the largest life sciences holding company in Israel, and Anatomy Medical Technologies Fund. The main part of the investment has been completed by a new strategic investor who has remained anonymous, but it would be a big corporate venture abroad.

Pi-Cardia, founded in 2009, has headquarters in the Israeli city of Rehovot, where it developed the Leaflex Catheter System, a novel non-implant innovative based technology for treating of patients with aortic valve stenosis. The Leaflex is a low-profile trans-femoral catheter incorporating unique Nitinol elements, which are optimized for delivering mechanical energy to create substantial fractures in valve calcification. These fractures help restore the mobility of the tissue and to improve valve hemodynamics using a short and simple procedure without the need to implant a new valve.

The design of Leaflex was based on the company's extensive research in the last few years on calcium growth patterns in hundreds of human aortic valves. Pi-cardia's Leaflex technology and mechanism of action are fundamentally different from thos of balloon-based (BAV) devices, in that instead of simply dilating the valve, which might lend itself to the short-term recoil seen in patients treated with BAV, the Leaflex creates multiple targeted fractures at optimal locations of valve calcifications thereby restoring leaflet mobility. This unique fracturing method, while preserving the native valve integrity, may facilitate valve replacement therapies, as well as pave the way for providing durable treatment without implanting a new valve.

Pi-Cardias aims to expand the treatment options in the rapidly growing multi-billion dollar amrket currently dominated by surgical or trans-catheter aortic valve replacement (SAVR/TAVR). 

It is a rare case in which the two Italian funds invest on foreign startups that point on Italy. Indeed, Pi-Cardia wants to invest in Italy. The goal is to receive the CE mark that allows to market the product in Europe and launch a pilot clinical trial in the United States. And to manage this process, the Israeli startup plans to create a research center in Italy, probably in Lombardy, from which it will coordinate all the clinical, regulatory and business development activities in Europe. In 2015, Pi-Cardia successfully completed enrolling the first set of patients in its FIM study in Europe, demonstrating safety and feasibility of the procedure. The funds raised would allow the company to complete the development of a second generation device, and to continue the clinical studies for showing its safety and performance, towards CE-mark. 

Saturday, December 19, 2015

360 Capital Partners closes €35M Seed Fund for European digital startups

The fund, called 360 Square, is intended for all those new startup company in the seed phase, which is to start production activity, when the company already exists with prototypes and management already present, but you do not know the commercial potential of the product or service (lender with good technical skills).

Backed by investors including the national insurer MAIF, the French bank Société Générale, Groupe Rocher, Thuasne, BPI France (FNA) and by business angels and European and American mentors, the venture focuses on investments from €300k to €1M in startups in France and elsewhere in Europe.

360 Square is the sixth fund of company and leads to €300M the total amount of funds managed by 360 Capital Partners.

"The vision of 360 Square - says Emanuele Levi, co-founder and General Partner of 360 Capital Partners - is to identify and help entrepreneurial disruptive who are actively contributing to the digital economy in the European region. With 360 Square aggregating investors are important from a number of vertical business and offering a diversified expertise and in-depth to our existing and future investments. "


A real return of venture capital in Italy. In recent months they have started several initiatives that have collected around 150 million with hundreds of projects reviewed


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360 Capital Partners announces today the launch of ‘360 Square’, a 35M fund dedicated to seed stage startups.

With investors including national insurer MAIF, French bank Société Générale, Groupe Rocher, Thuasne, BPI France (FNA) as well as business angels and mentors from Europe and the US, this latest fund reinforces 360 Capital Partners’ ambition to invest in the best startups regardless of the stage. 360 Capital Partners will invest amounts between €300k to 1M towards seed stage startups in France and the rest of Europe. The team has already selected several first investments, all of which will be made public in early 2016.

Paul Degueuse, General Partner at 360 Capital Partners will be responsible for leading the new fund’s investments, and was recently joined by François Collet as Partner coming from CMCIC Capital Privé VC fund. “‘360 Square’ aims at growing young businesses from seed stage onwards in France and across Europe” says Paul Degueuse. “Seed investment requires a local expertise, and it’s essential to have a presence on the grounds. With this new fund, 360 Capital Partners is allocating additional resources to very early stage startups and adapting our offering, our responsiveness, and our investment terms to the needs and requirements of a new generation of budding entrepreneurs.” 

The vision for 360 Square is to find and help grow disruptive businesses that are actively contributing to the digital economy in the region,” says Emanuele Levi, coFounder and General Partner at 360 Capital Partners. “With ‘360 Square’, we’re adding leading investors from a variety of verticals, offering diverse and deep expertise to our existing and future investments,” he adds.

A true comeback for venture capital in Italy. In the last months has been launched several initiatives that have collected around €150M with hundreds of projects reviewed.

360 Capital Partners has been an active seed investor for over 15 years. The firm wants to sustain disruptive new technologies by supporting and growing innovative and ambitious young businesses from their very start. Europe’s digital ecosystem is growing at an incredibly rapid pace, and 360 Capital Partners has seen its deal flow more than double in the past five years.

Since its creation in 1997, and with over 300M in total funds under management, 360 Capital Partners made over 80 investments in Europe including more than 25% in seed stage, with notable success stories such as MutuiOnline, Yoox, YellowKorner and Leetchi.

About 360 Capital Partners

360 Capital Partners is an investment firm focused on multi­stage venture capital, growing companies from seed stage to exit. The firms currently has over €300M total funds under management, and invests in France, in Italy and across Europe from its offices in Paris, Milan and Berlin.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

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 TTFactortechnology 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/