Italian startups raise millions: Rulen, Ganiga and Z_One Fund lead the week

Legal-tech scaleup Rulen, formerly known as LexSA, has raised 1.8 million euros in a round led by VC Partners, with Growth Engine, AME Ventures, Zest – Magic Mind, Alpha Venture and several business angels also writing cheques. The Milan-based company plans to spend the proceeds on its proprietary technology plus sales and marketing, BeBeez reports.

The deal brought a full advisory bench with it. Rulen retained Occhiuto Legal, while lead investor VC Partners appointed Target Law and Rovetta Zanello e Associati. Milano Notai acted as public notary.

Rui Hui Simone Hong serves as chief executive and Claudio Cama as chief technology officer. The two founded the company, which joined the scaleup program of A-Road in 2021. Growth Engine's earlier financing support came from a firm built by Michele Appendino, Marco Ariello, Andrea Marangione and Fabio Mondini de Focatiis. Stefano Siglienti heads VC Partners.

Who else raised money this week?

Ganiga Innovation, an Italian deeptech startup fighting food waste, attracted 1.5 million euros in equity from lead investor Vivenda, part of Consorzio La Cascina, alongside NextSTEP and three business angels. Founder Nicolas Lorenzo Zeoli built the company, and Emilio Roussier Fusco chairs Vivenda.

On top of the equity round, Ganiga received one million euros from Smart&Start Italia, a credit provider of Invitalia. That brings total fresh resources to 2.5 million euros. The startup will pour the money into developing Hoooly!, a smart trash bin designed to cut the amount of food households and businesses throw away.

What did Z_One Fund close?

Z_One Fund, the venture capital vehicle launched by Zest and its manager Eureka! Venture, completed its first fundraising closing at 35 million euros — ahead of a 55–60 million euro target — and has started its investment cycle.

CDP Venture Capital anchored the round. Zest committed 5 million euros, with Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and other private investors providing the rest. Stefano Molino heads CDP Venture Capital – Accelerator Funds, while Marco Gay leads Zest as chief executive.

Eureka! Venture manages the fund and appointed Luigi Capello as its chief executive. Capello founded the firm together with Giulio Montoli and Giulia Fazzini. Lazio Innova, an investor in Z_One Fund Lazio, has Andrea Ciampalini as its chief operating officer.

BeBeez Private Data, the private capital database run by BeBeez and FSI, tracks Zest, CDP, Eureka! Venture Capital and their investments.

Where do Italy's investors meet next?

BeBeez hosts its next Caffé di BeBeez on Monday 9 November at 10:30 AM at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Milan. Stefania Peveraro, BeBeez Editor-in-Chief, moderates a round-table on proprietary data, artificial intelligence and intelligence in private capital and M&A.

The programme opens at 10:30 AM with a welcome coffee, followed by the discussion at 11:00 AM. Speakers include:

• Antonio Torino, chief executive of Workgroup, on operational data
• Fabrizio Vigo, co-founder and chief executive of Sevendata, on data intelligence
• Tiziano Cetarini, founder and chief executive of Metriks AI, on AI agents
• Francesco Paolo Calia, co-founder of Quido, on the investor's changing role
• Francesco Casiraghi, managing director of Advent International, on AI as a driver of value creation in private equity

Casiraghi's firm is one of the founding partners of OpenAI Deployment Company, the organisation OpenAI set up to accelerate AI adoption in businesses. The agenda leans on a broader shift: OpenAI and Anthropic are building enterprise AI platforms with leading private equity firms, and the London Stock Exchange has framed its acquisition of Octus around the rising value proprietary data gains through artificial intelligence.

With three rounds closed in a single week and a fresh fund now deploying, Italy's early-stage pipeline shows no sign of slowing into year-end.