A-Road, Growth Capital’s acceleration and fundraising programme dedicated to scaleups, unveils the names of the five companies selected to participate in the sixth batch: BonusX, Ciao Elsa, Displaid, WithLess, Wordlift.
The scaleups join those selected in the five previous A-Road batches: AgoraLabs, Barberino’s, Cosmico, Cubbit, Freedome, GoVolt, HiNelson, Holifya, Homepal, Indigo.ai, Karrycar, Kippy, PayDo, Spiagge.it, Startric, TextYess, Timeflow, Truescreen, Tundr, Wetacoo and Yocabè.
“We are delighted to welcome BonusX, Ciao Elsa, Displaid, WithLess and WordLift to A-Road. With the support of our mentors and partners and with the goal of reaching the Series A round in a short period of time, these scaleups have the opportunity to accelerate their development and follow a growth path that will lead them to significantly above-average results in their respective sectors, as demonstrated by the results achieved by the companies that participated in the programme in its first four years,” Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, founding partner, Growth Capital, said in a note.
Scaleups
BonusX fondata da Giovanni Pizza e Fabio Pinci, BonusX è una piattaforma AI-driven che rivoluziona l’accesso ai benefici pubblici, eliminando la burocrazia. Con algoritmi avanzati e dataset proprietari, permette di scoprire e ottenere bonus sociali, fiscali e finanziari in modo semplice ed efficiente. Andrea Zocchi, managing director di Deliveroo Italia, accompagnerà BonusX nel suo percorso di crescita in qualità di CEO e mentor del programma.
Founded by Anna Vinci and Alessandro Zanchetton, Ciao Elsa is the first pension-tech reality in Italy. Initially conceived as a publishing channel, Ciao Elsa aims to make supplementary pensions simple and accessible to everyone and, from September 2024, to support people in choosing the right pension fund thanks to the first online pension fund comparator in Italy. Milena Mondini de Focatiis, Group CEO of Admiral, will accompany Ciao Elsa on its growth path.
Founded by Lorenzo Benedetti, Francesco Morgan Bono and Luca Radicioni, Displaid develops solutions for the monitoring and management of bridges and viaducts. Using smart sensors and AI, the platform enables infrastructure managers to make timely decisions for predictive maintenance, making infrastructure safer and more efficient. Duccio Vitali, CEO of Alkemy, will accompany Displaid on its growth path.
WithLess founded by Gianluca Treu and Thomas Alisi, WithLess is a procure-to-pay platform that helps companies manage payments and automate accounting through artificial intelligence. Thanks to its technology, companies can gain greater visibility and control over the entire liability cycle, reducing costs and manual labour. Paola Bonomo, member of the investment committee at NEVA and non-executive director at TIM, AXA and FAAC, will accompany WithLess on its growth path.
WordLift Founded by Andrea Volpini, David Riccitelli and Francesco Scavelli, WordLift is a platform that harnesses AI to improve the discovery of online content. Its AI-driven discovery suite helps brands build semantic knowledge graphs, enabling them to reach, engage and convert audiences strategically, with a strong focus on security and data ownership. Alessandro Petazzi, CEO of Lastminute.com, will accompany WordLift on its growth path.
The selected scaleups (pictured are the teams of the five in the sixth batch) will access an initial investment of EUR 200,000 from Growth Engine, a venture capital investment holding company with a pre-seed and seed focus founded by Michele Appendino, Marco Ariello, Andrea Marangione and Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, venture capital professionals with a portfolio of over 45 investees. In addition, they will be able to receive up to an additional EUR 300,000 from co-investors, with priority given to the programme’s CEOs and mentors, in order to reach the Series A round with the early commitment of professional investors.
The scale-ups will receive ongoing one-to-one support from a dedicated mentor who, drawing on his or her consolidated experience in growing highly successful companies quickly, will accompany them throughout the acceleration process. The programme’s CEOs and mentors include: Marco Ariello (ex-chairman Moleskine), Paola Bonomo (Investment committee member in NEVA and non-executive director in TIM, AXA, FAAC), Micol Fornaroli (industrial advisor EQT), Tommaso Gamaleri (group executive VP Younited), Milena Mondini de Focatiis (Group CEO of Admiral), Alessandro Petazzi (CEO Lastminute.com), Duccio Vitali (CEO of Alkemy) and Andrea Zocchi (managing director Deliveroo Italia).
The programme includes training workshops, professional services and ad-hoc consultancy from partners: McKinsey & Company, Amazon Web Services, Legance, Carter&Benson, Simon & Kucher, Sisvel, Studio Notai Associati Ricci e Radaelli, Studio CS.
Finally, the programme ensures fundraising support: Growth Capital will provide a customised approach by identifying the most suitable investors and investment structure and minimising the timeframe to reach the Series A round quickly. (photo by Benedetta Pitscheider)
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