Podcast
The Week in Italian Startup
Hosted by Giacomo Mollo · EN
The Week in Italian Startup discusses and analyzes the latest news from the Italian startup ecosystem. Giacomo Mollo is a former academic in philosophy turned tech investor. He is co-founder and partner of iN3 Ventures, a corporate innovation and VC firm. Niccolò Sanarico is an Oxford MBA and a software engineer with a passion for innovation and startups. He is currently an Investment Manager at Primo Ventures SGR, a venture capital firm based in Italy.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Pope Just Legitimized Anthropic. Here's Why That's Significant. #204
1w ago00:15:22Tap to summarizeThis episode unpacks Anthropic's Milan office launch staged at the Vatican with Pope Leo, Lex's $50M Series B legal tech raise led by Left Lane Capital, and Quantum Bridge Technologies' €8M seed round backed by Primo, Wire, Cadenza and Club University. The hosts argue Anthropic deliberately routed legitimacy through the Vatican after the Trump administration designated the company a supply chain risk in February — using the Pope's first-ever AI encyclical to position itself as the ethics-forward, European-friendly alternative to OpenAI. They flag that Anthropic reached the Pope before OpenAI did, reframing the "heroic ethicist" posture as a pricing input on company valuation and a strategic moat in regulation-heavy Europe. On Lex, the speed is the story: only eight months separate Series A from Series B, bringing total funding to roughly $73M and suggesting existing investors doubled down before larger US funds could enter. Left Lane Capital — a $3.8B AUM fund founded in 2019, with HelloFresh, Udemy, BlaBlaCar and MasterClass on its track record — is an unusual lead given its consumer-loyalty thesis, but consistent with its bias toward regulation-heavy markets. The Quantum Bridge Technologies round is anchored by Hoi-Kwong Lo, one of the most cited researchers in quantum cryptography, giving the team unusual scientific depth for a seed-stage Italian deep tech deal. The episode closes with a macro signal: May 2026 ranked as the second-best fundraising month in Italy over the past six years, behind only the 2022 peak.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →Did Algorithmiq Just Solve Italy's Talent Problem? #203
2w ago00:12:47Tap to summarizeItalian quantum software startup Algorithmiq, founded by physicist Sabrina Maniscalco, just closed an €18M round and relocated its global HQ from Helsinki to Milan — the largest quantum bet in Italian history and the first full-startup reshoring case, co-led by CDP. The hosts reframe the brain drain reversal as a "magnet effect," comparing the deal's pull on PhDs and operators to SpaceX in LA, DeepMind in London, and Spotify/Klarna in Stockholm. They unpack Algorithmiq's contrarian thesis: while the US and China pour capital into quantum hardware, Algorithmiq attacks the software and error-correction layer — proving it by beating Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford teams in a $2M quantum chemistry challenge tied to cancer research. The conversation pivots to Weedoo's €21M round to scale an AI agent platform for Italian SMBs across marketing, sales, and operations, backed solely by Azimut's private equity vehicle ICF3 (Impresa Crescita 3). The episode closes on the EIC Scaling Club — Brussels' explicit "unicorn conversion funnel" of ~120 companies that have collectively raised €3.4B — which just admitted three Italian names: Energy Dome, Cellply, and Caracol, mapping cleanly to energy, biotech, and advanced manufacturing. Energy Dome's parallel commercial agreement with Google links the story into the broader hyperscaler CapEx wave reshaping the European energy stack, with all three threads pointing in the same direction: Italian deep tech increasingly plugged into international capital and strategic supply chains.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →Smartness vs Booking.com: The Consolidation War Begins #202
2w ago00:10:27Tap to summarizeThe episode unpacks three Italian venture capital deals shaping the ecosystem in 2025-2026: Smartpricing's €47M Series B (the largest vertical SaaS round in Italian history), a €5M Series A in insurtech, and the state of Italian life science fundraising versus France. Smartness's capital stack — primary equity plus secondary plus debt — is read as an engineered M&A war chest aimed at consolidating fragmented PMS and CRM players in hospitality tech before incumbents like Booking.com move on the direct-booking layer. The hosts argue that six years from launch to Series B places Smartness in top-quartile European growth, approaching North American velocity. A recurring thesis emerges: European vertical SaaS will increasingly bolt acquisition strategies onto organic growth, absorbing regional players who cap out at national scale. The presence of Bending Spoons founders in Smartness cap table is flagged as a signal worth tracking, alongside the company's 5,000 customers across 41 countries and 10% organic month-over-month growth. The insurtech deal stands out for an unusual cap table — founders still holding 40% at a roughly €100M valuation while running EBITDA-positive on €5M in revenue — and for replicating the same M&A playbook through broker roll-ups. The life science segment exposes a structural gap: France has nearly double the number of Italian life science companies but raises roughly 5x the capital, while Italian players skew toward digital health and apps versus France's medtech, devices, and hardware bets. The throughline is an Italian ecosystem accelerating in execution and capital structure sophistication but still meaningfully capital-starved against its direct European peers.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →3 Signals That Turn a "Growth Round" Into a Rescue — Casavo Hits All Three #201
Apr 2900:12:45Tap to summarizeThis episode dissects three Italian venture capital signals: a €12M turnaround round into proptech Casavo led by Picus Capital and Project A, with Bending Spoons founders entering via personal vehicles; Jet HR's launch of an enterprise division and its public commitment to break-even by 2028; and Radical Partners launching Italy's first privately-backed VC fund-of-funds with a €400M target. The hosts read the Casavo cap table as a coded message — operator-DNA investors like Picus and Project A signal a rebuild rather than a growth round, and the absence of Italian VCs raises uncomfortable questions about who in Italy is equipped to underwrite turnarounds. The Jet HR segment digs into why a startup would publicly commit to break-even years in advance, and whether that signals to enterprise buyers (who fear vendor cash burn) more than to investors. The conversation frames Jet HR as a clean execution of the "boring business + new tech" thesis, applied to Italy's notoriously bureaucratic payroll and consulenza del lavoro market. The Radical Partners fund-of-funds discussion treats the launch as a structural maturity signal for the Italian ecosystem — a layer that institutional capital like pension funds needs in order to allocate to Italian VC at scale. The hosts speculate on what fund size will define a viable next-generation Italian VC firm, weighing US-style micro-fund models against larger institutional plays.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →Why Pirelli, Ferrovie and CDP Just Bet €38M On Italian Robotaxis #200
Apr 2700:21:18Tap to summarizeThis episode breaks down three signals from the European startup and venture capital ecosystem: the €38M early-stage round into Italian autonomous driving startup Niulinx, the €211M EU-approved Italian state aid grant to deep-tech photonics company CamGraPhIC, and an Italian VC panel debating whether AI agent–powered startups change the venture playbook. The Niulinx discussion unpacks why a coalition of Pirelli, Ferrovie dello Stato, a2a, CDP, and Falck reads less like a VC round and more like an Italian mobility stack assembling itself around a software layer — and why the company's "robosharing" framing is regulatory arbitrage, not a product compromise. The €211M CamGraPhIC grant is examined as a potential turning point for EU industrial policy under Article 107(3)(c), with NATO Innovation Fund's earlier involvement hinting at a dual-use, strategic-autonomy subtext. The hosts contrast the European infrastructure-first AV approach against Waymo and Tesla's software-first playbook, and question whether €38M is enough courageous capital to de-risk Italian deep tech to a Series A. The final segment debates the rise of one-founder, agent-augmented startups, the concentration risk of solo founders, and how venture itself may evolve toward AI-negotiated deals, faster MVP cycles, and more liquid secondaries. The conversation is grounded in specific deals and named investors — Emilio Frazzoli, Gianluca Dettori, Massimiliano Magrini — rather than abstract trend commentary.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →Why Bending Spoons bought Tractive? #199
Apr 800:15:10Tap to summarizeBending Spoons acquires Tractive, an Austrian GPS pet tracker with €100M+ ARR, breaking its software-only acquisition playbook for the first time with a hardware-subscription hybrid. The episode unpacks why a company that built an $11B valuation buying declining digital products like Evernote, Vimeo, and AOL paid a premium for a profitable, fast-growing hardware business. Tractive's co-founders came from Runtastic, the fitness app sold to Adidas for €220M, making this their second major exit using the same sensor-plus-subscription model in a different vertical. The hosts explore how Tractive's 900,000 paying subscribers generate a proprietary pet health and movement dataset that could unlock AI-driven veterinary intelligence and pet insurance products. In Italian startup news, Wearable Robotics — a Sant'Anna di Pisa spinoff building rehabilitation exoskeletons — closed a €5M Series A led by CDP Venture Capital, targeting a market where traditional therapy only recovers 10% of stroke patients. Capsule Corporation raised €800K to develop water-based propulsion systems for small satellites, positioning Italy as a hub for specialized space-tech engineering. The episode closes with a shoutout to Depthfirst, a cybersecurity startup with an Italian CTO from Google DeepMind, which raised $80M in a Series B less than 90 days after emerging from stealth.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →This Fund Backed a Research Project. Safran Bought It for €220M #198
Apr 100:16:04Tap to summarizeThe discussion starts from 360 Capital’s €85M first close and argues this is not just another fund announcement, but a stronger institutional bet on turning university research into investable deep tech companies across robotics, semiconductors, AI, and energy transition. A key insight is that Italy may not lack scientific talent as much as it lacks commercialization infrastructure, and vehicles tied closely to top technical universities like Politecnico di Milano can become a repeatable pipeline for venture-grade startups. The speakers also highlight a more important shift: corporates, including defense-linked players, are not only watching deep tech but increasingly funding the pipeline early through LP commitments and “right of first look” logic. Another sharp angle is that Europe may be splitting into two VC models: classic software-style venture funds and more thesis-driven vehicles shaped by industrial policy, regulation, and strategic sectors. On the startup side, Trifoglio is framed less as a traditional startup and more as a PE-style roll-up using acquisitions and operational scaling in the carwash market. Subbyx is presented as a balance-sheet-heavy subscription model where debt is not a warning sign but a structural feature, while Dronus reinforces the idea that drones are moving from gadget territory into serious industrial infrastructure for inspection, monitoring, and security.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →This could stop Europe’s Talent Drain to Silicon Valley. Also This Week: UpSurgeOn, Alomana #197
Mar 2400:19:10Tap to summarizeThis episode breaks down the EU Inc proposal, stock option taxation in Europe, Delaware incorporation, and Italian startup fundraising rounds. The hosts dissect a hidden clause in the 28 EU Commission regime that would harmonize stock option taxation across all 27 member states — shifting the tax event from exercise to sale, a move that could dramatically reshape founder incentive structures. They draw a parallel to Delaware's rise as the gold standard for company formation, arguing that EU Inc's real value isn't the €100 fee or 48-hour setup, but the potential for unified corporate governance, bankruptcy law, and a deep judicial corpus. The conversation then pivots to Italian deal flow: UpSurgeOn, a medtech startup, raised €5M for cadaver-free surgical training using VR and physical simulators, backed by CDP Venture Capital and Siemens. Alomana, an agentic AI infrastructure startup, closed a €4M seed to build enterprise workflow automation beyond the copilot paradigm. The hosts note Alomana's early international footprint as a strong signal for AI companies attracting global investors. They close with a Q1 2025 Italian venture capital tracker check-in, flagging a slowdown in later-stage rounds compared to prior years.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →Cleafy Stops Bank Fraud 15 Days BEFORE It Happens; Also: Gyala, Mirai Robotics #196
Mar 1900:14:54Tap to summarizeThe conversation opens with a sharp critique of how banks typically fight fraud too late, arguing that the real edge is detecting attacker infrastructure before fraudulent transactions even happen. A major insight is the shift from transaction monitoring to real-time attack-chain reconstruction, which reframes fraud prevention as a predictive data problem rather than a reactive compliance task. The hosts emphasize that a product with zero customer churn across a decade and protection across major banks signals unusually strong product-market fit in cybersecurity. They also explore how better pre-fraud systems can reduce false positives, which matters not just for security accuracy but for operational efficiency and cost. The episode then shifts to a cybersecurity startup applying military-grade technology to civilian OT, IT, and IoT resilience, highlighting the reverse dual-use angle as especially compelling. A third segment focuses on autonomous maritime vehicles, arguing that the maritime sector may be one of the most promising environments for autonomy because regulation is more mature, even if the operational challenges remain severe. The episode closes by noting that fresh capital flowing into fintech and insurtech funds is a positive signal for the Italian startup ecosystem.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
Transcribe →How Eight Sleep Became an AI Health Company; Also: Tether, Isaac raising 14M; Techvisory AI #195
Mar 1600:16:22Tap to summarizeThe conversation opens with Eight Sleep’s €1.5 billion growth round and argues that the real asset is not the smart bed itself, but the company’s moat: over 1 billion hours of proprietary sleep data collected across 35 countries. A key insight is that in AI, the edge is shifting away from generic model access and toward unique, defensible datasets tied to real-world products. The hosts also highlight Eight Sleep’s bigger strategic move: repositioning from a wellness brand into a healthcare-grade platform, which could unlock a much larger market. Tether Investments is discussed as a highly unconventional investor, using crypto-driven capital and edge AI ambitions to back companies where privacy, local inference, and device-level intelligence matter. The episode then broadens into a weekly map of where Italian startup capital is flowing, with ISAAC presented as a standout example of applied deeptech through retrofit earthquake-resilience hardware. It also examines Techvisory’s executive-led startup model and closes on a practical venture takeaway: in Italy, M&A remains the most credible and repeatable exit path for many startups.Niccolò's newsletter: http://dealflowit.niccolosanarico.com/Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giacomomolloListen to all episodes on audio:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fVynsQGoogle Podcast: https://bit.ly/3thf9RCApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3ElhykqAmazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Dtd9Get in touch:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giacxxxTwitter: https://twitter.com/giacomomolloEmail: giacomo@in3.ventures#venturecapital #italy #startup
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