The second quarter of 2023 has come to a close, and it’s time to take a look at the startups that have received funding. During this period, Italy has seen 273 million euros invested in startups and innovative SMEs across 70 different investment rounds, according to the Growth Capital report. Two sectors have particularly attracted attention in recent months: lifestyle, with the highest number of rounds, and Life Sciences, which maintained its lead in terms of funds received. Among the startups in the Life Sciences sector, AAvantgarde Bio, a biotech group based in Milan, stands out as it secured the highest funding round of the quarter, amounting to 61 billion euros. Excluding the mega-rounds, which were absent in the last quarter, this year’s Q2 aligns with the average of the previous two years (241 billion euros).
Here is a selection of the most interesting operations in the Italian Venture Capital market:
Ermes – Cyber Security:
This Turin-based startup, the only Italian organization selected by Gartner in the top 100 using artificial intelligence to defend against cyber-attacks, closed the first tranche of an A Series investment round, raising 3 million euros. With this funding, the startup aims to expand internationally, and a transformation into a joint-stock company is also planned.
One Trading
This platform dealing with digital assets, providing retail investors access to cryptographic assets, has initiated a new independent and separate activity from Bitpanda. The startup also announced raising 30 million euros in a new A-Series financing round, which will be used to strengthen its cryptographic asset offerings in Europe. Bitpanda will retain a stake in the company.
Develhope
This startup, operating in the digital education sector, has raised 6 million euros with the participation of CDP Venture Capital, OPES Italia, and SEFEA Impact SGR. The new funds will be utilized to accelerate international expansion, with the goal of training talents in European and African countries with high youth unemployment rates.
Leonardo
The leading defense company has acquired approximately 10% of FlyingBasket, an Alto Adige-based startup active in the high-capacity drone industry in Europe. With Leonardo’s entry into the capital, FlyingBasket will have access to the company’s infrastructure and technological assets to create a national logistics network based on the use of cargo drones.
Planckian
The world’s first company committed to developing the technological concept of the quantum battery has closed a 2.7 million euro pre-Seed investment round with the participation of Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer, Tech4Planet, Exor Ventures, and prominent business angels. Combining expertise in materials science and quantum information, the startup aims to push the boundaries of the quantum revolution through the development of innovative technologies for energy control.
Extracted from the July/August issue of the magazine.
