Italy’s angels& incubators and venture capital weekly roundup. News from Trusters, Babaco Market, hlpy, Cosaporto, Primo Space, Destination Italia and more

CrowdFundMe, a Milan-listed crowdinvesting platform acquired a further 7.3% of Trusters an Italian real estate crowdlending  company, (see here a previous post by BeBeez). CrowdFundMe now owns 51% of the target.

Babaco Market, the Italian e-commerce for made in Italy grocery that aims to fight the waste of food, raised 6.3 million euros from lead investor United Ventures, Niccolò Maisto, CDP Venture Capital, Seven Investments, Feel Venture, Doorway, Startupbootcamp Foodtech, Boost Heroes, Plug & Play, NextUp, and LVenture (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Babaco raised a total of 8.1 million since Francesco Giberti founded the business in 2020. The company will invest these resources in its international and organic growth.

Italian automotive assistance startup hlpy attracted equity (5.1 million euros), convertible instruments and debt (2.4 million) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Sinergia Venture Fund, CDP Venture and Techshop Primo poured equity in the business. Valerio Chiaronzi, Graziano Cavallo and Enrico Nosed founded hlpy in 2020.

Cosaporto, an Italian delivery company for high-end items, raised 2.7 million euros through an equity crowdfunding that earlier in October launched through Mamacrowd on the ground of a pre-money value of 10 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Azimut Eltif – Venture Capital ALIcrowd invested one million in the campaign. Cosaporto also attracted the resources of Mario Giordano and Fabio Zecchini and will invest such proceeds in its organic growth. Cosaporto has sales of above 4 million.

Xceed, an Italian startup that developed a platform for live events, raised a 2 million euros round for financing its growth in the EU in 2023 (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company attracted the resources of Estonia’s Trind Ventures, Superhero Capital, Best Nights VC (the venture capital unit of Jägermeister), Fernando Herrera, and Lasse Laaksonen. Andreas Mihalovits and Alessandro Fracassi who previously invested in Xceed also poured money in the round.

Morsy, an Italian food delivery startup based in Turin that Carlo Alberto Danna and Startup Studio Mamazen founded in 2018, is going to raise a total of 500k euros (250k euro from IH1 that will subscribe equity instruments) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). After such an investment, Morsy will generate sales of 1 million ahead of launching its operations in Milan.

Primo Space, a vehicle of Primo Ventures sgr, will invest 1.35 million euros in Eoliann, a B Corp for weather risk management, and 500k euro in ChAI, a developer of artificial intelligence systems for forecasting the volatility of commodity prices (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Roberto Carnicelli, Chiara Mugnai, Giovanni Luddeni, and Emidio Granito are the founders of Eoliann which also raised a further 0.15 million from Exor Seeds and its venture building vehicle Vento of which are part Talent Garden, OgrTorino, and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. Tristan Fletcher, Marcus Dixon, Stephen Butler, and Michael Button founded ChAI which also attracted an undisclosed amount from London-listed Seraphim Space, 20250 Capital, Portfolio Ventures, Passion Capital, and Insurtech Gateway.

Milan-listed traveltech Destination Italia signed a binding merger agreement with Portale Sardegna, a Milan-listed competitor (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The closing is expected to take place in April 2023. After such a merger, Portale Sardegna will delist and its owners will receive 2,45 shares of Destination Italia for each of their current holding. Destination Italia’s main shareholder Dina Ravera said to BeBeez that the company is carrying on its catalyser role with the support of financial partners such as Banca dei Territori – Intesa SanPaolo and CDP Venture Capital sgr. After this merger with Portale Sardegna, Destination Italia will belong to Lensed Star (47.34% – a vehicle of which Ravera has 69.93% and Giulio Valiante 30.07%), last-minute.com (17.45%), Intesa SanPaolo (4.46%), Marco Ficarra (0.8%). The current shareholders of Portale Sardegna will own a total 25% of Destination Italia. Portale Sardegna currently belongs to Massimiliano Cossu (9.46%), Marco Demurtas (8.65%), Acacia Travel Holding (7.74%), La Mole (6.67%), Marzo Zedda (5.47%), Main Tower Sicav (6.67%), Flexagon Holding Limited (6.84%), Flexagon Industrial Investment (1.25%), and Flexagon Capital Solutions (0.94%). Cossu will join the board of Destination Italian and keep his management rome of Portale Sardegna. Lensed Star, Cossu also signed a stock option plan that may allow him to get 3% of Destination Italia. The other managers of Portale Sardegna may get a further 3% of the buyer.