Italy’s angels & incubators and venture capital weekly roundup. News from LVenture, CrowdInvest Italia, Indaco Venture

Italian startup ecosystem and venture capital sector keep a steady level of activity

Futura Invest acquired 5.98% of LVenture Group and paid 0.62 euros per share for a total investment of 1.24 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Futura Invest is available to double its commitment by 1H 2020. Gianluigi Costanzo is Futura Invest’s chairman. The company’s main shareholders are Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Enasarco. Luigi Capello founded Milan-listed LVenture Group, an early stage investment company listed at the Italian Stock Exchange. Futura Invest and Intesa Sanpaolo own 49% of Indaco Venture Partners, whose 51% belongs to Davide Turco(ceo), Elizabeth Robinson (executive vice-president), and to investment directors Antonella Beltrame and Alvise Bonivento. Futura Invest and LVenture will collaborate through the platform Cariplo Factory.

The Italian Government will no longer include laws for the development of blockchain and venture capital in a specific decree (see here a previous post byBeBeez). However, the Government said in a statement that it may focus on these sectors at a later stage. 

CrowdInvest Italia, an equity crowdfunding platform for the SMEs, started its activity. The platform is led by Christian Bellucci (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Katipult developed this Tuscany-based multilingual platform that aims to involve the relevant Chinese community of Prato, a town in Florence area. The first crowdfunding campaign of CrowdInvest Italia will involve Gelatarium, an express ice cream producer founded by Riccardo Martinelli and his partners. The company aims to raise between 50k and 300k euro by 10 February 2019 and investing these proceeds in developing the business.

Indaco Venture Partners sgr launched, on behalf of its Indaco Venture fund, a call for startups going through a scaleup stage in need of investments worth 10 million of euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The venture capital fund’s advisor is growITup, an open innovation platform that belongs to Cariplo Factory andMicrosoft. This call is for innovative scaleups generating sales worth above one million of euros growing at a yearly rate greater than 30% with well-defined internationalisation plans. Applicant businesses have to operate in the following fields: digital, electronics, robotics, IoT, MedTech & healthcare, new materials and cleantech.