Futura, a Milan-based edtech startup, raised a €14m series A round from Eurazeo, United Ventures (already an investor), and Axon Partners Group. Loquis, a travel podcasting startup, raised €3.78m from P101, Innova Venture, PiCampus, and CDP VC. Checksig, a crypto custody and trading startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.7m from undisclosed investors. J4ENERGY, a climate-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from RoboIT, Tech4Planet, and Pariter Robotics. Domethics, a proptech startup, 🇮🇹raised €725k from CDP VC. Wishew, a UK-based social network, 🇮🇹raised €10m from LMDV Capital. NextUp 🇮🇹acquired Sweet Lilium → investment vehicles merging, a new quick way to enhance portfolio diversification? ;-) JAKALA announced the acquisition of France-based ClaraVista. Maticmind 🇮🇹acquired GDMS-Italy.

Cryptosmart, a crypto exchange, 🇮🇹raised €3.5m and announced the acquisition of IBX AG, a bitcoin mining company. BOEM, a startup launching a low-alcohol drink, 🇮🇹raised €3m from LMDV Capital, an existing shareholder. Lithium Lasers, a deep-tech startup specializing in femto-lasers, raised €2m from Primo Space and 360CP. Primo Space also invested €1.1m in Ecosmic, a space-tech startup. Qlhype, a second-hand clothes startup, 🇮🇹raised €700k from business angels. Drinkme, a B2B wine and spirits startup, 🇮🇹raised €580k in a crowdfunding campaign. Neva SGR 🇮🇹joined a $100m Series D in Coro, an Israeli cybersecurity company. xFarm Technologies merged with Greenfield and Spacesense to hone its Geospatial AI. Edflex, a French edtech startup, acquired OfCourseMe.

Cosmico, a talent-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €4m from Prana Ventures, 40Jemz, Intesa Sanpaolo, and business angels. LIFTT joined the $26m round raised by Evergreen Theragnostics, a life sciences startup. CDP Venture Capital launched Frontech Accelerator, with Algorand and Microsoft as technical partners Visma acquired Fiscozen: exit for United Ventures and Keen Venture Partners. The first quarter has concluded, and we now have the initial assessments of the Italian startup landscape, as detailed in the VeM report and the Venture Capital Report by Growth Capital / ITA.

Tes Pharma, a biotech company, 🇮🇹raised €10m from XGen Venture. FidoCommercialista, a tax-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.2m from 40Jemz Ventures, X-Equity Venture Club, i3Charter, Alecla7, and Vesper. Kilogram, a food-tech and wellness startup, 🇮🇹raised 150k from Archangel AdVenture. Proxima Fusion, a nuclear fusion startup based in Germany, raised €20m. The startup is a spin-out of the Max Planck Institute and is led by Italian founders. Oops, they did it again: Bending Spoons announced the acquisition of StreamYard Top Corp (a.k.a. Hopin). Impresoft 🇮🇹acquired Ribes Solutions. Cloud Care 🇮🇹acquired Crea.re Digital. OpStart 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in BackToWork. Almaviva 🇮🇹acquired Magna Sistemas Consultoria Sa.

BookRepublic, a digital e-book library, raised €1.5m from Mondadori, with a commitment for an additional €1.5m investment in 2025. They two will launch Narae, a joint venture focused on webnovels. NExT, a modular electric vehicles startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.25m from Cysero. Amalia Care, a health-care startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from Personae (a CDP-powered accelerator), A|Impact, Social Fare, and business angels.

Casavo 🇮🇹raised so far €19.5m out of the €30m in convertible debt as it executes its turnaround plan. Nouscom raised an additional €7m into its Series C round (see TWIS #178) from Angelini Ventures. AION Tech, an API orchestration startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.3m from AATECH SPA SB. StepsConnect, a recruiting-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from a syndicate of investors including 40Jemz Ventures, Eden Ventures, Moonstone Fund, Moffu Labs, and others. Keplero AI, an AI assistant for customer service startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k in a round led by 40Jemz Ventures. Id.Eight, a sustainable sneaker startup, 🇮🇹raised €350k from A|Impact.

Wesii, a company deploying drones to monitor critical infrastructure, 🇮🇹raised €2.8m from Terna Forward and DXT Commodities sa.Cynomys, a Precision Livestock Farming startup, raised €2.1m in a seed round participated by Farming Future, dsm-firmerich Venturing, Levante Capital, SVG Ventures, Plus9, in addition to previous investors.TalentWare, a talent management startup, raised €800k in a pre-seed round led by 360cap.Nozomi Networks, an OT and IOT security company, raised $100m from Mitsubishi Electric and Schneider Electric, among others.

Kurbs Orbital, a space-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €3.7m in a round led by Otb Ventures, joined by Credo Ventures, Galaxia, In-Q-Tel, and Inovo.This Unique, startup offering environmentally sustainable menstrual pads, 🇮🇹raised €0.5m in a bridge round by Ulixes Capital Partners, Moonstone, and Longevity Life Holdings.WAO, a proptech startup, 🇮🇹raised €0.8m in a preseed round from OneDay and business angels.CityZ, a smart parking startup, 🇮🇹raised €0.5m from 40Jemz and Magic Spectrum.Bud power, a food for sports startup, 🇮🇹raised an undisclosed amount at a €6m pre-money.Bending Spoons is considering a potential acquisition of Vimeo Inc.Italian Artisan 🇮🇹acquired Ad Hoc Atelier and raised €750k from Primo Ventures.Zucchetti 🇮🇹acquired a stake in EsgMax and 🇮🇹Qualitando.Scaglia Indeva 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in SysDesign (exit for Cysero).NetResults acquired Awhy.

Akuis, a fitness-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.15m from ALIcrowd III (Azimut), Wemoove, and X-Equity (a club deal). The Italian government 🇮🇹approved a new allocation worth €150m to support investments in AI, 5g, and cybersecurity. H-Farm received a tender offer to be taken 🇮🇹private. One of the eldest of the Italian startup ecosystem reports is finally out: VEM 2023 A 78-page-strong report on the Italian VC landscape by P101 + Dealroom.

Medical Microinstruments, a medtech company, raised USD 110m in a series C round led by Fidelity Management & Research.3D Nextech, a digital manufacturing startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.5m in a round led by EUREKA! Venture.CaSRevolution, a life sciences startup developing a therapy for Alzheimer's, 🇮🇹raised €1.3m in a crowdfunding round.Superfluid, an Ethereum-based token streaming protocol, raised $5.1m in a round led by Fabric Ventures.Jakala 🇮🇹acquired GotU.Shopfully acquired Ofertia.Reevo acquired Itnet.Everli was actually 🇮🇹taken over by Salvatore Palella, through a €21m capital increase.

Gabriele Venturi is founder of PandasAI, a Python library that adds Generative AI capabilities to pandas, the popular data analysis and manipulation tool. In this conversation, we dive deep into various topics related to AI, including the impact of AI on data analysis, the democratization of data analysis, the role of open source vs. closed source in AI, and the business model and sustainability of open source AI. We explore the future of AI interaction and interfaces, the impact of AI on jobs, and the defensibility of AI companies. Additionally, we discuss the future of machine learning professionals and the advancements in copilot technology. [The episode was recorded in October 2023] Takeaways - AI is transforming data analysis by democratizing access to data and providing new ways to interact with and analyze data. - Open source AI is becoming increasingly popular and is challenging closed source AI by providing more customization and flexibility. - The future of AI interfaces will likely involve a combination of conversational and structured data interactions. - AI has the potential to disrupt certain jobs, but it also creates new job opportunities and enhances productivity in other areas. - The defensibility of AI companies lies in building meaningful products and focusing on customer needs rather than just relying on the technology itself. - The future of machine learning professionals will involve a deeper understanding of AI technology, including the ability to build models from scratch and ensure explainability and determinism. - AI copilots have the potential to greatly enhance productivity and assist in various tasks, but their effectiveness will depend on integration and context-specific applications. - The future of AI will involve advancements in explainability and determinism, addressing the black box nature of AI models and ensuring consistent and coherent outputs. Language models can have biases and preferences towards certain options, which can be a challenge to address. - Unlearning and removing data from AI models is an emerging area of research, with applications in correcting incorrect training data and removing biases.

Daze, a startup developing smart chargers for electric vehicles, 🇮🇹raised €15m in a Series A round led by CDP VC, with the participation of EIC Fund, Founders Future, and Prana Ventures. GuidoIo, an edtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €700k from 360Cp, Growth Engine, and Vesper Holding. Cloov, a fashion-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k in a seed round. Bending Spoons confirmed the $155m funding round raised from Durable Capital Partners LP and existing investors Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, NB Renaissance, NUO Capital, and StarTIP. The company reported a $2.55 billion post-money valuation. Cosmico acquired Bioss.

Sealence, a startup developing sustainable and innovative solutions for the marine industry, raised €7.5m in equity, debt, and grants.Underscore District, a fashion brands accelerator, 🇮🇹raised €4m in a round led by Kairos Ventures ESG One.Addax Biosciences, a biotech startup, raised €2.5m from Fintech Partners.Voidless, a packaging technology startup, raised €2.2m from CDP VC and 360cp.Okapi, a green-tech startup, raised €1m from Digital Magics and Innova Venture.Collecto, a luxury goods crowdfunding startup, 🇮🇹raised €750k in an angel round.Develop-players, an educative gaming startup, 🇮🇹raised €600k from Opes Italia, 20 Fund, and Privilège Ventures.Sense4med, a medtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €510k from Scientifica Venture Capital and Innova Venture.Dafne, a sexual wellness startup, 🇮🇹raised 250k in a pre-seed round participated by Lifegate, Over Ventures, and Open Seed.Paperbox Health, a startup addressing learning disorders in kids, raised €230k in a bridge round by VITA Accelerator.Sella Venture Partners SGR 🇮🇹announced its second fund of funds dedicated to investing in international VC funds.

Tau Group, an energy transition startup, raised €11m in Series B extension funding led by CDP Venture Capital and Santander Alternative Investments.Ventive, a consulting and investment firm for startups , 🇮🇹raised €2.4m from a syndicate of investors.Sikuro, a building site security startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m in a crowdfunding round led by Fleap Holding Spa and Azimut.Renewcast, an energy forecasting startup for wind energy, 🇮🇹raised €850k in a round led by Helen Ventures and Tech4Planet.Glutensens and VisioNing 🇮🇹raised €204k and €184k from Farming Future and ToSeed&Partners.Bending Spoons 🇮🇹announced it is preparing to raise a €200m round.1 I was impressed by their 2023 EBITDA reported in the article: €200m!Panakès Partners led a €30,4m round in Enterprise Therapeutics.Angelini Ventures 🇮🇹invested €8m in Noctrix Health Inc. and COUR Pharmaceuticals.Neophore raised an additional $12.2m in its Series B round from Neva SGR, LIFTT, and Simon Fiduciaria.CDP VC’s fund-of-funds arm invested in Seroba Fund IV, a €123m life sciences fund.Zucchetti 🇮🇹acquired a majority stake in Awms.Safilo 🇮🇹acquired a minority stake in Spaarkly.Poké House 🇮🇹acquired Poké House Belgium.SECO was accepted into the Qualcomm IoT Accelerator Program.Opyn 🇮🇹is expanding its BNPL service for businesses to Europe, UK, and Switzerland.🇮🇹15 startups incubated by the Startup Builder to keep an eye on.The Italian “Gazzetta Ufficiale” (the primary source of legal information and the official vehicle for the publication of new laws, decrees, regulations, and other acts of the Italian government) was released as a data set on HuggingFace. Will LLMs manage to understand the intricacies of our legal system?A ✍🏻 survey about the culture of growth in Italian startups: if you are a founder of an Italian startup with a couple of minutes to spare, 🇮🇹click here.Scalapay 🇮🇹appointed Andrea Fumagalli as country manager for Italy.More than 100 businesses 🇮🇹adopted JetHR since its launch.📈Yes, it is cricket: Italy gives the go-ahead to insect flour for human use.EU agrees new rules to cut the cost of listing companies.The 2024 State of Quantum.

K-Sport World, a sport-tech startup, raised €5m in a round led by Rialto VC. Axyon AI, an AI fintech company, raised €3.9m in a round led by US-based VC firm Montage Ventures and accompanied by The Techshop SGR, alongside other angel investors. Doorway, a crowdfunding platform, 🇮🇹raised €1.76m in fresh capital from CDP VC, Angels4Women, and other business angels. Jampy, a startup developing products for pet wellness, raised €1m in a pre-seed round led by 360cp, alongside other business angels. Volta Structural Energy, an energy storage startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from Tech4Planet and Leonardo SpA. Cellex, a medtech startup, 🇮🇹raised €830k from Innova Venture and business angels. Weforguest, a travel-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €500k in a pre-seed round from CDP VC, LVenture, and other investors. On top of that, the startup received €480k in debt instruments. Playtomic 🇮🇹acquired Sportclubby. Xenon Private Equity Small Cap 🇮🇹acquired a controlling stake in Kettydo+, Hic Mobile, and UrbiStat. LLMs are finally speaking Italian! Two open-source models fine-tuned in the Italian language have been recently released: LLaMAntino, released by a team from the University of Bari, is a fine-tuned version of LLaMa 2 (here is the paper, and of course, the models are available on HuggingFace in the 7b and 13b variants). Zefiro is an LLM model fine-tuned to the Italian language based on Mistral 7b. The models are available on HuggingFace, on the author’s page. But we have higher aspirations: Cineca and iGenius (an AI startup) 🇮🇹announced a partnership to create Modello Italia, a foundational LLM built from scratch. Will it stand against the big, deep-pocketed foundational LLM behemoths?

FTNet, a sales-tech startup in the pharma sector, 🇮🇹raised €3m from angel investors. SPiN, a space-tech startup, raised €1.64m from Galaxia, ScientificaVC, and Lazio Innova, 1Control, a smart access startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from CDP VC and Azimut Alicrowd II. Lexroom.ai, an AI-for-law startup, 🇮🇹raised €500k from business angels. Ticketoo, a secondary ticketing startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k from Digital Magics, Lazio Innova, and business angels. Deeva, a beauty-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €400k from Mamazen and business angels. Lendit, a B2B credit-sharing startup, raised an undisclosed amount from dpixel in a natively tokenized fundraise. Seed Venture was the platform enabling the deal. Panakes Partners joined Sofinnova Partners and other investors in the €20m seed round raised by DISCO Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup. Stellantis Ventures joined the €22m round raised by Tiamat, a French sodium-ions batteries startup. TXT e-Solutions acquired 51% of Arcan, a startup developing solutions for software technical debt. Winelivery 🇮🇹acquired Become Somm.

D-Orbit confirmed the closing of the €100m announced back in November 2023 (seed issue #177). Marubeni led, with Avantgarde, CDP VC, United Ventures, Primo Ventures, Neva SGR, Indaco Venture Partners, and Seraphim Space Investment Trust following. Contents.com, an AI-based content generation platform, raised USD$18m in a Series B round led by Alkemia Capital and Thomson Reuters Venture. SQIM, a biotech startup, raised €11m in a round led by CDP VC, with participation from ECBF VC, Kering Ventures, and Progress Tech Transfer. Indigo.ai, an AI-first startup, 🇮🇹raised €2.5m from its controlling shareholder Vedrai. Your Personal Trainer, a sports-tech startup, raised 723k from CDP VC and Lazio Innova. Fedrigoni Group invested in Sharpend, an IoT startup. Neosperience Health, controlled by Neosperience, raised 1m and plans to go public on the Nasdaq. Bending Spoons acquired Meetup. Bending Spoons also acquired Mosaic Apps (for allegedly more than $100m).🤯 L’Orto di Jack, a fresh groceries company, 🇮🇹acquired Ristoking (and is preparing to raise €10m). LuisaViaRoma announced the acquisition of Holding It. Almawave 🇮🇹acquired Mabrian Technologies.

Resalis Therapeutics, a biotech startup, announced a €10m round led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures with participation from existing investors.Vitesy, a green-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €3.2m from Doorway and business angels.Algor Education, an AI startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.4m from Emerge Education, Club degli Investitori, 40Jemz Ventures, and Gustaf Nordbäck.OhmSpace, a space-tech startup, 🇮🇹raised €1.2m in a round led by Scientifica Venture Capital, with Innova Venture and Galaxia joining the round.Mbility, a mobility startup, 🇮🇹raised €1m from FNM.Excellis, an investment holding, 🇮🇹announced its second capital increase (and 10 investments).IH1, an investment holding, 🇮🇹reached €5m in capital raised.

Unobravo, a mental health and wellbeing startup, raised an undisclosed growth round from Northzone, with the participation of H14. CDP 🇮🇹sold its stake in the startup, exiting its 2020 seed investment. Smartpricing, a revenue management software for hotels, raised €11m in equity and €2m in credit lines in a round led by Partech (through its new fund Partech Ventures, also invested by CDP). Techshop, Azimut, and the founders of Bending Spoons participated in the round. CAEmate, an Alto Adige-based digital twin startup, 🇮🇹has secured €3m in a post-seed funding round. The round was led by CDP Venture Capital and 360 Capital, with contributions from private investors Marco Carlini and Matti Kuivalainen. nCore, a HR-tech startup, raised €2m from Vertis. Eureka! invested in two PoC projects from CNR and the University of Bologna, Reflex and Proxy. Amount undisclosed. Indaco Venture Partners and Angelini joined a $38m investment in Freya Biosciences, a biotech company specializing in women's health, led by Sofinnova Partners and OMX Ventures.

This episode features Tommaso Migliore, CEO of MDOTM Ltd. We cover a range of topics in AI including the impact of AI and Machine Learning in investment management and asset management, the rise of large language models like GPT-4, the democratization of AI and Machine Learning, and the differences between analytical and generative AI. It also delves into the evolution of AI in finance, challenges and future trends in AI adoption in financial sectors, and specific case studies demonstrating AI applications in institutional investment processes. The discussion provides insights into how AI technologies are transforming investment strategies and decision-making. MDOTM Website: https://www.mdotm.ai/ Tommaso Migliore on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommaso-m... - Subscribe to the channel for weekly updates. Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/ Listen to all episodes on audio: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQ Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RC Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3Elhykq