On the nights of the Champions League, sport-tech startups are also among the champions. Among these protagonists Golee, founded by a former footballer, Tommaso Guerraand by an expert in software sales, the President Felice Biancardian innovative startup that has over 2,500 customers in Italy (between professional and amateur clubs) and one community of about 200 thousand athletes. Precisely in the “nights of the samples” a capital increase was approved to service the issue of no. 2 million in converted equity financial instruments with a value of 1 euro. CDP Venture Capitalthrough the Relaunch Fund, it joined the round with a total investment of € 300,000.
The operation was followed from a legal and regulatory point of view by the lawyer Antonino Ceraolo, Head of Legal of the company. The operation allows the company, already a partner of Lega PRO, and of several Serie B and A clubs including Venezia and its academies – to strengthen its positioning in the national market, to expand its customer base to high sports and accelerate the process of expansion abroad. A key role in this growth process will be played by an exceptional advisor, Clarence Seedorf, who, as a commentator of the Champions League and of great talents of the past and of the future, immediately believed in Golee’s mission of wanting to digitize football and sport, basic and professional.
“Our goal is to make a positive impact on the sports communities and to provide access to innovation and technology for all. From this idea was born Golee, a platform that digitizes all the operations of football sports clubs “. Felice Biancardi he is president and co-founder of Golee, the innovative startup founded to accelerate the digital transformation, in a sector populated by 14 thousand amateur realities and not only that revolve around the ball. “95% of the football market is made up of clubs that do not exploit the potential of digital and unfortunately still rely on paper, pen and Excel sheets”. A need that is not only found in football or in Italy but also in other sports, especially Leagues and Federations and abroad, where we will hear about Golee very soon. It is no coincidence that Golee has been included among the best startups in the world for innovation applied to sport. A recognition that has resulted in a direct investment since Qatar Sportstech (Qatar Foundation), an accelerator for innovative companies in the sports sector, based in the country which, in 2022, will host the World Cup.
The Sicilian Creation Dosea digital marketing service provider, closed a round from 1 million euros. Investors include the Startup Relaunch Fundsigned by Ministry of Economic Development with an endowment of 200 million euros and managed by Cdp Venture Capital sgr. Studio Di Tanno Associati assisted the company in the transaction (see the press release here).
This is the quarto round per la startupafter equity crowdfunding from 116 thousand euros of March 2019 and the round seeds from 200 thousand euros of February 2020 and from 203 thousand euros of July 2021 (see Crunchbase). The Serie A footballer also participated in the 2020 round Leonardo Pavoletti.
Founded in 2018 by Alessandro La Rosa, Raffaele Barone e Antonio Puleo together with Jacopo PaolettiCreationDose closed 2021, as well as with new funds, also with revenues of just over 1 million euros (more than double compared to 2020), obtained thanks to important collaborations with brands such as Wish, Virgin Active, Invicta, Water & Soap, RollingStone, SpeedyPollo, Forgetfulness, Idealista, Infinity plus, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Corepla and many others. The company boasts a constantly growing team (with about 30 people, 60% of whom are women, with key figures such as Alessia Ciccarellochief operating officer, e Alessandra Giuffrida to the communication direction). The average age of employees is 26, and each team member is already a partner or has a dedicated stock option plan.
Creation Dose has also made a series of investments aimed at increasing the sales synergy with investee companies (today more than 14, with over 100 investing partners including digital agencies, first of all Openbox but also Creact and Scai Comunicazioneand in a minority also by Sicilian actors such as Indico, Etnaland, the Fronterr familyAnd and many others, all oriented towards sharing their skills and know-how). CreationDose was also involved in the launch of ZedProductionthe new photo and video production company dedicated to Generation Z led by Federico Rognoni; Dose Talentthe talent factory founded together with the former members of CreationDose Federico Tudisco, Marco Dodaro e Micol Platania, which combines technology and entertainment to help companies communicate with the new generations (ZedProduction is currently in equity crowdfunding on the CrowdFundMe platform). CreationDose also supported its minority subsidiaries including MyChicJungle, The Wave Studio, &Love, Isola.Catania, Contents.com, in addition to the participated startups also present in its CreationHub as Blaster Foundry, Capital Venture Consulting, Keplera, SEO Tester Online, Coderblock, Japal.it, e Userbot. Furthermore, Creation Dose has been confirmed as a strategic partner for Martech’s Openboxwhich closed 2021 with 3.8 million in turnover and a growth of 55% compared to 2020, reaching 38 employees.
The main challenge of 2022 for Creation Dose will be to further strengthen the corporate partnerships as well as its commercial offer, also thanks to an extensive recruitment plan and a new office, ready to open its doors already in the first quarter of this year. With more than 600 square meters in the center of Catania, the new one DoseFactory will allow CreationDose and its partners to further strengthen their community and intensify the links with other realities present in the area, as well as obviously on a national scale. CreationDose is also working on the development of new features within Vidoser, the proprietary mobile app that connects brands and creators, with which it has made itself known since 2018, and on the enhancement of the research and analysis tools of the DosePlatform, the MadTech platform built internally that already supports brands and agencies in the creation of advertising campaigns.
Jacopo Paoletti, co-founder and general manager of Creation Dose, as well as partner and advisor to several SMEs and startups known in the Italian panorama, commented: “Building a structured reality in the South like CreationDose is a challenge that is anything but simple, which I have embraced. right away to give voice and space, even here in the South, to all those talents who too often see their personal and professional growth eliminated, in a complex territory like the Sicilian one; in fact there are still many young people, prepared and talented, forced to move elsewhere to express their potential, and it is also for this reason that we are working on a really attractive hub in Catania in the wake of the south working phenomenon: CreationDose is a pole of this change, and is preparing to be for all those people and those realities who want to create, together “.