Raffaele Terrone, co-founder of Italy’s first unicorn, Scalapay, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding for the AI-driven intelligence platform for investment professionals, an organization he founded called Desia. The round was funded by Octopus Ventures, Exor Ventures, 2100 Ventures and Dig Ventures respectively.
Along with Alessandro Amaro and Mehmet Öner Yalçin, former employees of private equity firm Advent International, Terrone co-founded Desia. The platform aims at revolutionizing the process of investment analysis by use of artificial intelligence in selecting data of probable targets for investment rather than relying on human assistance in this time-consuming and laborious task which often falls on the lap of junior staff in the financial services sector.
It is quite like a co-pilot, similar to those developed by Microsoft but completely vertical and dedicated to private equity and investment professionals, says Terrone. Today, Desia goes stealth out and joins the growing band of start-ups targeting AI tools for the investment community. The UK-based Outward led the funding round for £1.7 million into Capsa AI, which is developing an AI-enabled operating system for private equity’s due diligence. Sweden-based firm Grasp raised $1.9 million investment in May for its AI assistant exclusive for private equity firms and investment bankers.
Desia’s financing also marks a milestone in the Italian fintech landscape. Already one of its founders, the entrepreneur behind Scalapay, invested many efforts in notoriety since the firm’s launch, another creation of the fintech industry, Satispay, catches all the waves: Its last round took $511 million, while its valuation reached $1.1 billion in 2022.
Francesco Filia, head of investment at Fasanara Capital, an investor in the seed round of Scalapay, said that Italy has changed for investments. He mentioned that there was a dearth of capital in several places in Europe including Italy, however, conditions are moving steadily.
Such moves include increased provision of capital to venture funds by a significant Italian development bank called Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, as well as the formation of new companies that specialize in this region.
Still, while Scalapay has demonstrated a capacity to incubate innovation, just one business so far flown the coop: former product manager Alexandros Fokianos, who raised €1.6 million in May for AI SaaS platform Zefi.ai. As Italy’s tech ecosystem continues to mature, attention is increasingly placed on innovative companies like Desia, which promise to have a significant effect in the investment space.
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