Axyon AI Closes €1.6 Million. Roundabout Also Raises €300,000

Axyon AI, active in the development of artificial intelligence-based solutions for asset management, announced that it has closed a €1.6 million funding round underwritten by the Startup Relaunch Fund, managed by CDP Venture Capital SGR as well as ING, UniCredit, Geminea, and Metes as co-investors.

Axyon AI will use the new resources to support its international growth and develop Axyon IRIS, which offers asset managers market predictions and investment strategies based on artificial intelligence. In addition, “the new financial resources will help strengthen the team’s growth and support the continued focus on innovation and improvement of AI and Deep Learning models that have already become an integral part of our clients’ investment processes,” said Daniele Grassi, co-founder, and CEO of Axyon AI.

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What Axyon AI does

Founded in Modena, Italy in 2016 by Daniele Grassi, Giacomo Barigazzi, and Jacopo Credi, Axyon AI received its first investment from ING Bank after winning ING’s International Innovation Studio acceleration program in Amsterdam. In 2018, it completed a €1.5 million funding round led by ING and Unicredit. This enabled the startup to enhance the development of its proprietary, fully automated AI technology to make predictions about financial markets, launch its development plan and gain significant market validation.

“Our technology has already demonstrated robust performance in the asset management industry, and clients increasingly rely on Axyon AI to support their investment processes. This funding round provides further evidence that the market is increasingly recognizing Axyon AI’s commitment to the development of high-level AI technology.” Daniele Grassi concluded.

Roundabout startup raises €300,000 round

Roundabout, a startup that provides SMEs with a software platform to create and manage influencer marketing campaigns, has closed a €300,000 seed round; the funding saw the entry of a string of strategic private investors alongside Startup Wise Guys and Pinto Ventures AG. This investment will enable Roundabout to develop new features, accelerate growth in Italy, and begin expansion into early international markets.

What Roundabout does

The startup, founded in 2019 in Turin by Ilaria di Lecce and Antonio Montemurro, has developed a tool that allows small and medium-sized businesses in Food & Beverage, Lifestyle, Beauty, Events and Travel to create and manage promotions with micro-influencers with verified performance.

The platform, created by Roundabout, is designed to be easily used by non-marketers and aims to make the influencer marketing experience “one-click.” The focus, entirely on the micro-influencer sector (2,000 to 100,000 followers), allows, on the one hand, SMBs to target more profiled and local accounts and thus reach geographic areas and industry niches more quickly for targeted activity. As, in fact, market studies have also shown micro-influencers have higher engagement rates than any other type of influencer and since the pandemic have seen engagement values increase by an average of 130 percent. On the other hand, Roundabout protects the work of influencers through a tool that always provides transparency and clarity and allows them to target consistently paid campaigns and select companies based on their geographic location and industry of specialization.

“Our vision is that by 2025 the influencer profession should be, not only socially accepted, like any other profession in the communications industry, but also protected and regulated.”

Influencer marketing

Roundabout offers companies a real turnkey service: after selecting the types of influencers, choosing the target, and planning the budget, the startup manages the entire professional process, from strategy to final reporting. To date, there are +2000 influencers and +100 companies that have used Roundabout’s services, among the latter are also Winelivery, Eataly, Skinlabo, and Virgin Active Italia.

“This collection will allow us to strengthen Roundabout’s positioning in Italy and further accelerate our development strategy. Being accompanied in our growth by such influential players in the innovation ecosystem is also a further confirmation of the validity of our offer, which aims to radically change such a fragmented market as influencer marketing. Although this profession is often underestimated in terms of commitment and complexity,” said Ilaria Di Lecce, CEO of Roundabout.

“In addition to capital, which is necessary for growth, our mission is to put in place for today’s – and tomorrow’s – female entrepreneurs skills, strategies, business culture, and a broad network of relationships,” concluded Andrea T. Orlando, managing partner of Startup Wise Guys Italy.

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(Featured image by stevepb via Pixabay)

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