Led · Equity · Feb 2020

BigProfiles is a Rome-based B2B SaaS marketing intelligence platform that uses artificial intelligence to profile customers and predict consumer behavior. Its profiles are populated from open data sources and social networks via commercial agreements and deliver more than 250 attributes covering income, wealth, education, consumption patterns, interests and other characteristics. The company says profiles are anonymous and that its business practices comply with European privacy legislation. Clients report sales increases of up to 150 percent after using the platform. BigProfiles launched after LVenture Group’s acceleration program in 2017 and raised €600,000 that year. It has now raised a €1.5 million round led by Invitalia Ventures and LVenture Group. Co‑founder and CEO Lorenzo Luce serves on the Italian Ministry of Economic Development’s Commission of Experts on Artificial Intelligence and was part of the Italian delegation to the latest G7 on AI. Big Profiles offers a Customer Intelligence platform that ingests client data and enriches individual customer profiles using information found on the web, social networks, professional registers and statistical sources. The platform produces detailed profiles and estimates customers' willingness to purchase and/or abandon. Big Profiles says its solution has been adopted by a large number of corporate customers, including banks and insurance companies. Led by CEO Lorenzo Luce, the company completed the LUISS ENLABS accelerator program in May 2017. The startup intends to use new funding to expand adoption of its platform within the Italian corporate market and to continue developing its technology. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2020

2hire is a Rome, Italy-based smart mobility solutions company founded in 2017. It develops intelligent mobility solutions that connect vehicles (cars, bikes, scooters, e-scooters, etc.) and enable remote control via smartphones. Its Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform lets rent-a-car and sharing companies monitor, manage and update services connected to their fleets. 2hire was accelerated within LUISS EnLabs. The company already connects over 10k vehicles globally across Europe and South America and serves renting and sharing companies among others. It recently raised venture funding and intends to use the proceeds to continue to expand operations. 2Hire develops a hardware device that plugs into a vehicle's standard OBD port to monitor status in real time and let a smartphone act as the digital key. The product combines on-board hardware with companion software to enable remote vehicle management. The company completed the LUISS ENLABS accelerator in May 2017. 2Hire says it will use the recent funding to accelerate production and industrialization of the device and to speed up software development. The seed financing provides early capital to move the product toward manufacturing and market-readiness. The company is based in Rome, Italy and was co-founded by Filippo Agostino (CEO), Andrea Verdelocco (iOS Developer) and Matteo Filippi (CTO).

Participated · Series A · Jul 2019

Kither Biotech develops novel therapies for rare pulmonary diseases with a specific focus on cystic fibrosis (CF) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Its lead candidate, KIT2014, is a cell-permeable peptide designed to modulate intracellular cAMP levels and is being developed as an inhaled add-on therapy to improve outcomes for CF patients. The company plans to complete preclinical studies for KIT2014 in 2022 and to initiate a Phase 1/2A clinical trial thereafter. Kither is also launching preclinical development of KITCL27, a PI3K inhibitor pro-drug being developed as a monotherapy for IPF. The company is a spin-off from the University of Turin and collaborates with the Molecular Biotechnology Center and other research centres. Leadership includes CEO Dr. Vincent Metzler, CFO Marco Kevin Malisani (formerly CEO), and a board chaired by Laura Iris Ferro. Kither Biotech is a Turin-based biopharma spin-off from the University of Turin focused on identifying and developing drug candidates for pulmonary diseases, including cystic fibrosis, asthma, COPD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Its lead candidate, KIT-2014, is protected by a family of international patents and has received Orphan Drug designation from the European Medicines Agency. Preclinical results for KIT-2014 have been replicated in top centres active in cystic fibrosis research, including the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill. The company will use the new funds to complete preclinical studies and initiate a phase I/II clinical trial of KIT-2014 in healthy volunteers and patients during 2020. It also plans to advance a second development program testing another candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. Kither actively collaborates with the Molecular Biotechnology Center (University of Turin) and other research centres worldwide.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2019

Codemotion operates a multichannel platform that connects IT professionals, developers and companies, enabling the community to share tech trends and best practices. The platform provides learning content and developer-focused activities including in-depth tech articles, coding challenges, webinars, networking events, hackathons and meetups. It also helps companies identify resources for open innovation and digital transformation projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and Big Data. The company reports the platform currently features 500,000 developers, 200 tech communities and over 300 startups and established companies across Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, and has a team of over 50 people. Codemotion was co-founded in 2013 by Chiara Russo and Mara Marzocchi and is based in Rome, Italy. The company closed a €6M second funding round to support global consolidation of its platform. Codemotion provides a platform that connects IT professionals, tech communities and companies to support developer career advancement and enable corporate marketing, hiring and open innovation activities. Founded in 2013 by Chiara Russo and Mara Marzocchi and based in Rome, Italy, the company operates a community of 570,000 software developers and a network of about 300 corporate partners including Cisco, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle. Codemotion has over 40 employees across four countries: Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. The company raised €2.5M in funding and intends to use the proceeds to accelerate development of the platform and expand abroad. Its platform aims to help developers advance their personal careers while allowing companies to involve them in various talent and innovation initiatives. Codemotion is an innovation hub based in Rome, Italy that provides technical training, developer conferences, kids' technology education (Codemotion Kids!) and hackathons. It was founded in 2013 by Chiara Russo and Mara Marzocchi. The company organizes technical conferences across seven countries, with over 2,000 IT professionals attending the main events. Over the past three years it has managed more than 35 hackathons and its training catalog includes over 50 courses. Codemotion plans to use the newly raised €1.5M to strengthen its developer community, consolidate international growth and broaden its offering. Gianluca Dettori of Barcamper Ventures will join Codemotion’s board as part of the funding round.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2019

Mindesk provides a platform for modeling CAD in VR/AR that allows users to create and modify tridimensional objects in real time. The platform is available as plug‑ins for McNeel Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and Dassault SolidWorks and is mainly used in engineering, the naval industry and the creative arts. The company recently introduced a Rhino plug‑in with Unreal Editor, developed in partnership with Epic Games, to add photorealism to CAD 3D modeling for AEC use cases. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Gabriele Sorrento, Mindesk is headquartered in Bari and has opened an office in San Francisco after completing Vive X, HTC Vive’s AR/VR accelerator. The company says it will continue to develop software in both Italy and the USA and use the new funding to expand operations and development efforts. Mindesk develops a virtual reality-powered immersive 3D CAD modelling interface aimed at architects, engineers and designers. Its platform lets users connect modeling projects in the third dimension, edit them in virtual reality mode, and collaborate in real time. The company is based in Bari, Italy, and also maintains an office in San Francisco. Mindesk was co-founded by Gabriele Sorrento, Sergio Giorgio and Vittorio Bava. It has been selected to participate in HTC’s Vive X acceleration program and has attracted interest from Microsoft, Samsung and Facebook. The company raised €670K to continue development of the technology, implement further CAD solutions, and support mass production and distribution efforts.