Fintech (the finance sector that meets innovation: payments, services, money transfers, ecommerce, but also investments) has become a fundamental part of the economy and the lives of millions of people, posing ever greater challenges to the pillars of banking and financial system, but also offering opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic was a further factor in accelerating digital adoption, in particular, in the payments sector. Fintech has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the last five years.
477 Startups analyzed
This is what emerges from the IAG Index 2021. The report of Italian Angels for Growth (network of investors participating in early stage financing rounds in startups in the Life Science, Deep Tech, Digital and Fintech sectors).Fintech covers the 10,2% of the selected startups. Business angels focus on fase seed (65.8% of funded capital increases), where their mentoring role is sometimes more valuable than the capital invested. As for valuations, the highest are in the Fintech sector for i round pre-seed (3.5 million), seed (6.4 million) and Serie A (19.2 million). Geographically, IAG’s business angels have invested primarily in Italy (58.5% of the rounds) and in particular in the north (42.5% of the total). The foreign valuations were confirmed more generous than the Italian ones in the pre-seed and seed rounds, with a differential of as much as 40% in the case of the Serie A rounds.
The relationship is based on a sample of 477 startups in the period between July 2020 and June 2021. The startups in analysis are part of the entrepreneurial projects arrived at Italian Angels for Growth and evaluated for a possible investment by the shareholders. And finally sit you are the indicators, which analyze: the industrial sectors, the type and evaluation of the investment rounds, the geographical area, the gender differentiation in the entrepreneurial teams, the ESG factor (which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainability of an investment).
The new parameter analyzed by the IAG Index is the ESG factor. 37.4% of the startups analyzed by the network of Italian angels have a “responsible” business, that is linked to the environmental, social or governance impact in companies.
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Fintech is the sector in which the focus on ESG issues has grown more vertically, overcoming for example the Digital sector (25% vs 14%). he it is the securitization of non-performing loans in favor of economic recovery, or solutions that reduce the environmental impact linked to traditional financial systems or digital platforms that monitor CO2 emissions, now the frequency of startups sensitive to the ESG issue in the field Fintech is getting higher.
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The sample showed that the sector most attentive to these aspects is the Life Science: more than 2 out of 3 startups have integrated sustainability criteria into their strategy to create value in the medium and long term.
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Over the past 12 months, according to the report, there has been a substantial increase in the presence of at least one woman on the Fintech startup team analyzed: more than one in 3 startups respects this characteristic (35%, compared to 25% in 2020).
The top Italian startups in Fintech
Money is the main European platform of corporate spend management. The company, founded in 2015 by Carlo Gualandri, closed a $ 180 million Series C round led by Temasek (interview al founder), the venture capital fund of the Government of Singapore, and which saw the participation of new investors such as Sunley House Capital, Advent International, Citi Ventures.
Truelayer is a startup founded in 2016 by Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti, who developed a platform that allows you to connect apps and banks to manage payments on the go without the need to enter all the data of a credit card. Based in London, closed a $ 130 million Series E investment round with Tiger Global and Stripe, for an overall valuation in excess of $ 1 billion. It is the third startup founded by Italians and based in London to become a unicorn, after Depop and Soldo. We also talk about it WHO.
Scalapay it’s a startup that offers a buy now pay later service, payment in installments. In 2021, it closed a 133 million euro (about 155 million dollars) investment round led by Tiger Global and attended by Baleen Capital, Woodson Capital, and previous investors Fasanara Capital e Ithaca Investments. For the startup founded by Simone Mancini (the interview to the founder) in 2019 the total collection now exceeds 203 million dollars. Currently Scalapay has over 3,000 active stores, both online and offline, across Europe and plans to move to the UK and US in the coming months.
Moneyfarm is a startup, founded by Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Daprà in 2012, which deals with savings management, using Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics and biometric recognition solutions. Born in Italy, in Milan, since 2016 it has also been operating in the United Kingdom. In 2018 it closed a round (among the most important) of 46 million euros. In 2019, Poste Italiane and Allianz invested 40 million euros in the company. To date, Moneyfarm has raised over € 115 million.
Satispay, a former Italian startup specializing in the payments sector, in 2020 closed a round worth 93 million. The company founded in 2013 by Alberto Dalmasso, Dario Brignone and Samuele Pinta, in 2018 and 2020 was, according to estimates by Cb Insight, among the 250 fastest growing fintech companies globally. In the first ten months of 2020, it recorded a number of payments up 78% compared to the same period in 2019.
Innovation in traditional marketsi
Believe me, founded in Milan in 2017, is a Fintech specialized in digital financing for businesses and wants to offer concrete support to businesses, providing a channel for accessing liquidity, an alternative to the traditional one offered by banks.
First Insurance is a startup active in insurtech (specialized in auto policies), which, using Artificial Intelligence technologies, tries to better understand the needs and requirements of each individual user. Founded in 2014 by George Ottathycal Kuruvilla, Teodoro D’Ambrosio and Alberto Genovese, in 2018 it closed a € 100 million investment round led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing funds and Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities fund.
AideXa is a fintech startup dedicated to small businesses and VAT numbers, founded by Roberto Nicastro and Federico Sforza in 2020. It closed a round of 45 million euros in 2020 led by 360 Capital Partners, Bertoldi Holding, Banca Sella, Banca Ifis and Generali Group.
Tinaba is an Italian fintech startup launched by Sator Private Equity Fund in 2015, which has developed an app to send, save and share money at no cost. In 2020 it closed a 6 million round with Bank Profile e Sator Private Equity Fund.
To keep an eye on
Fido is a startup, founded by Marko Maras and Paolo Mardegan in 2020, which has developed a digital footprints analysis system (our digital traces) to measure the digital score of prospects and predict credit risk. In 2020, it closed a € 1.2 million round.
MDOTM is a startup that suggests investments using Deep Learning techniques to analyze millions of market data points. In 2021 he closed a series B investment round of 6.2 million euros with Federico Ghizzoni (president of Rothschild Italian and former CEO of Unicredit), Lorenzo Pagani (managing director of PIMCO) and Alberto Zaffignani (managing director of Natixis) , who joins the board of the company. The startup was founded in London in 2015 by Tommaso Migliore and Federico Mazzorin and is divided between London and Milan, where it has the head quarter.
SardexPay is a startup that has developed a complementary currency platform that was created to bridge the credit access gap for small businesses and professionals. In fact, it allows companies and associated professionals to exchange goods and services on the basis of accumulated credits. In 2020 it closed an investment of 5.8 million euros by Cdp Venture Capital Sgr (with the Italia Venture Fund), with Primomiglio and Fondazione di Sardegna.
To learn more about the Italian ecosystem, consult The Italian Startup Database.
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