Aryel, ABZero, Panakes Purple Fund, CDP Corporate Partners I, Casavo - February 21, 2023

Aryel, an AR startup, raised €3m in a round led by Prana Ventures with the participation of several business angels.  ABZero, a drone delivery startup, raised €200k from business angels and crowdfunding.  Aspire, a Singapore-based B2B fintech startup funded by two Italian entrepreneurs raised US$100m in a Series C round.  Panakes Partners announced the final close of its Purple fund, at €175m.  CDP Corporate Partners I, a “corporate VC” fund managed by CDP VC, reached €300m§, with the participation of Newlat and Terna as LPs.  The European Investment Bank and 5 EU countries announced €3.75bn fund of funds to invest in VCs that back European scaleups.  Casavo announced a 30% reduction in its workforce.  The Rock Trading, Italy’s oldest crypto exchange, suspended trading and withdrawals, in a move that eerily resonates with similar cases in crypto (FTX?).  Reading this week Looking for new tools to solve specific tasks? There’s an AI for that.  Crunchbase’s January recap: OpenAI raised a third of all funding in the world.  Pitchbook released its European VC Valuations report for 2022.