The Week in Italian Startup

This episode dives into Bending Spoons , venture capital , startup financing , and crypto infrastructure . The hosts analyze Bending Spoons’ massive $270 million growth round and $2.8 billion debt package, which push its valuation to $11 billion. They unpack how the mix of primary and secondary capital offers liquidity to early shareholders while fueling global expansion and M&A — including th...

The episode discusses Caracol’s $40M Series B round , Europe-wide venture capital momentum, and deep-tech additive manufacturing. The hosts underline how Italian startups must stop thinking locally and begin raising from pan-European investors early to scale properly. They highlight Omnes and Move Capital as examples of sophisticated European deep-tech investors backing the deal. The conversation...

This episode dives into the week’s biggest startup, tech, and venture-capital stories: Cyberwave, Eoliann, Arduino’s Qualcomm deal, and Italy’s new pension-fund VC law . The hosts unpack how Cyberwave’s €7 million seed round shows the rise of digital-twin infrastructure for testing industrial robotics safely before real-world deployment. They then explore Eoliann’s €4.25 million raise , combining...

The episode focuses on a number of Series A rounds, spotlighting Lexroom’s €16M for AI-assisted legal drafting, Serenis’ €12M amid explosive revenue growth, and Lupa’s €20M veterinary operating system. We argue vertical, domain-trained AI is winning where complexity is high, with “proof of love” (user delight) emerging as the decisive product metric. We highlight increasingly international syndica...

Highly syndicated rounds with more international investors backing Italian and European startups. We discuss TIP’s markup implying Bending Spoons’ €5B valuation and speculate on a potential IPO. The centerpiece is BlackRock + EIF’s TrackVC dashboard, giving Europe a rare, official benchmark for DPI, TVPI, and net IRR—albeit with a one-year lag and GP-reported, interim data. We stress the J-curve a...

We discuss Bending Spoons’ massive $500M debt financing led by JP Morgan and other global banks, and its headline-making $1.38B acquisition of Vimeo, signaling a bold product consolidation strategy. We highlight speculation of a possible IPO and synergies across Bending Spoons’ video and productivity tools. The episode also covers Shop Circle’s $200M Series B round, emphasizing its acquisition-dri...

This episode kicks off with Exein, a cybersecurity startup building a “digital immune system” for IoT devices, which raised €70M and achieved 450% YoY growth, highlighting strong demand for device-level protection. We break down the massive opportunity in cybersecurity, noting unicorn creation and strong ARR multiples. Next, the conversation shifts to  Tulum Energy , a clean-tech firm producing tu...

Sibill, a fintech startup, stands out for its innovative approach to automating accounting for Italian SMEs, saving business owners up to five hours a week and streamlining compliance with government agencies and banks. The conversation highlights a broader trend: “boring” but essential business problems like finance and HR are now lucrative targets for modern startups. ZNEXT’s €60M initiative is...

Jet HR , an HR tech startup, just raised €25M in a growth round from Base10 Partners, Exor Ventures, and the Italian Founders Fund. Known for integrating with over 600 government entities and simplifying Italy’s complex payroll system, Jet HR achieved a 6X increase in ARR and now serves over 700 SMEs. The founders—already seasoned entrepreneurs—are steering the company toward breakeven while scali...

We begin by discussing a new  AI index  comparing AI startups on Euronext Growth Milan (EGM) with Italy’s FTSE index—showing AI outperforming by 42%. They highlight a €3.2M round raised by Nova Talent, a talent-tech company blending professional networking with AI-driven recruitment. The conversation reveals how AI companies, including non-AI-native firms, are rapidly integrating AI, and many now...

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IAMA Therapeutics , a neuroscience startup,  🇮🇹raised  €15m in a Growth round from Indaco Venture Partners SGR, Fondazione Enea Tech e Biomedical, Claris Ventures SGR, and CDP Venture Capital SGR. WSense , a marine deep-tech startup,  🇮🇹raised  €7.2m in an Early-stage round from CDP Venture Capital SGR, Blue Ocean, RunwayFBU, Axon Partners Group, Fincantieri, and Rypples. Tundr , an employee-benef...

Medicud , a medtech startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €1.3m in a Seed round from CHMBR Partners, 50 Partners Capital Health, and Business Angels des Grandes Écoles. Exsensia , a robotics startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €1m in a Seed round from RoboIT, Elettrocablaggi, and Pariter Robotics. Saturnalia , an agri-tech startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €600k in a Seed round from Farming Future. Prensilia , a robotics startup,  🇮🇹raised  an...

Blubrake , a bike-tech startup,  🇮🇹raised  €12m in a Growth round from Algebris Climatech, Fundracer, and Tri-Star group, Growth Capital. Covision Media , a 3D AI startup,  🇮🇹raised  €5m in a Early-stage round from CDP Venture Capital SGR, Redstone, The Techshop, and Business Angels. GenomeUp , a medtech startup,  🇮🇹🇮🇹 raised  €4.5m in a Early-stage round from The Techshop, CDP Venture Capital SGR...

CamGraPhIC  Srl, a photonics startup,  🇮🇹raised  €25m in a Series A round from CDP Venture Capital, NATO Innovation Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Join Capital, Bosch Ventures, Frontier IP Group, and Indaco Ventures. Novac , an energy storage startup,  raised  €3.5m in a Seed round from Eureka! Venture, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Galaxia. Cassandra.app , a martech startup,  raised  €2m in a Seed ro...

RESILCO , a waste management startup,  raised  €5m in a Series A round from 360 Capital, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Tech4Planet. BRUM , an edtech startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €3.5m in a Early-stage round from Italian Founders Fund. Bevy , a drink delivery startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €2.5m in a Early-stage round from Linfa, FoodLabs, and Business Angels. Cyberating , a cybersecurity startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €1.85m in...

Valo Therapeutics Oy, an immunotherapy startup, raised €19m in a Growth round from Indaco Venture Partners, CDP Venture Capital SGR, Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical, and Freeman Road. Matix, a hardware startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.1m in a Seed round from auxiell, B-Heroes, and Business Angels. Lexroom.ai, an AI legal-tech startup, raised €2m in a Seed round from Entourage, Verve Ventures, Banyan Venture...

Valuematic , a cloud optimization startup,  🇮🇹raised  €850k in an Early-stage round from CDP Venture Capital SGR, Progress Tech Transfer, and Toscana Next. Nlcomp , a composite materials startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €600k in a Seed round from Samer & Co Shipping, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Zest. Klear , a fintech startup,  🇮🇹raised  €500k in a Pre-seed round from Business Angels. Searcode , a consume...

Arsenale Bioyards  raised  $10m in a Seed round from Planet A, byFounders, CDP Ventures, Acequia Capital, Plug N Play, Business Angels and Grey Silo Ventures. Mopso  raised  €1m in a Seed round from Apside, Fin+Tech, CDP Venture Capital, Centro Istruttorie, and Business Angels. Lilac-Centro DCA  raised  €693k in a Seed round from Personae, CDP Venture Capital, SocialFare Seed, Sullivan Venture, Ge...

Newronika, a company specialising in advanced deep brain stimulation, raised €13.6m in a Series B round from Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical, Indaco Venture Partners SGR, Innogest Capital SGR, Wille Finance, TNBT Capital, and F3F.NOB 4.0 Srl (Imatra) 🇮🇹raised €8m in an Early-stage round from CDP Venture Capital, and Fintech Partners. Approxima, a biotech startup, 🇮🇹raised €7.3m in a Series A rou...

Akamas, a cloud optimization startup, raised $10m in a round led by United Ventures. Krill design, a sustainable materials startup,🇮🇹raised €6m from Algebris Investments, Primo Capital, and Crédit Agricole Italia. AIKO, an AI for space startup,🇮🇹raised €520k from Club degli Investitori. Chapeau Media 🇮🇹raised €140k in a Seed round from Marcello Ascani. Contents.com🇮🇹raised a round from Side Angels...

A deep dive into Freiberg and Matz’s 2023 Paper ‘Founder personality and entrepreneurial outcomes' This episode dives into groundbreaking research on how a startup founder's personality traits impact fundraising, investor interest, and exit success. The study, conducted on thousands of founders, analyzes the Big Five Personality Model and how traits like openness, conscientiousness, and ne...

Subbyx  🇮🇹 raised  €15m in a Series A round from Azimut Digitech Fund, Azimut Alicrowd. Tensive S.r.l.   raised  €14m in a Series A round from Panakès Partners SGR, EIC Fund, CDP VC, Recomec, Business Angels. indigo.ai  🇮🇹 raised  €10m in a Series B round from Azimut. Wopta Assicurazioni  🇮🇹 raised  €4.1m in a Series A round from Business Angels. Easyrain   raised  €2.5m from Indaco Venture Partne...

Qomodo , a BNPL startup,  raised  €13.5m in a Series A round from RTP Global, LMDV Capital, Proximity Capital, Primo Capital. Faba , a kids-tech startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €4.5m in an early-stage round from CDP VC, Oltre Ventures, Ad4ventures. Complaion , a reg-tech startup, 🇮🇹 raised  €3.4m in an early-stage round from Koinos Capital, 2100, Exor Ventures, Banca Sella, Ithaca. Keyless , a biometric scale...

Bikeflip, a bike ecommerce, 🇮🇹raised €1.6m from undisclosed investors. Onepix Academy, a chatbot startup, raised €500k from Edizioni Simone. Viola, a personal safety startup, 🇮🇹raised €428k from a syndicate of business angels. Liquid Factory 🇮🇹announced the first 4 entrepreneurs accepted in the program - each of them will receive €200k from Banco Popolare di Sondrio. Vet services platform Lupa rai...