EDITORIALE IL FATTO INVESTS IN FOODSCOVERY:THE PORTAL OF GOURMET ITALIAN EXCELLENCE
The Publishing Company Il Fatto participates in the financing of a startup.
The operation also involved Digital Magics, FI.R.A. and leading angel investors
for an amount of approximately Euro 800,000
Foodscovery is a startup of Digital Magics, the incubator listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, which has developed an “Open Innovation” program for the publisher of Il Fatto Quotidiano
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Rome, February 16 2016 – Editoriale Il Fatto invests in Foodscovery: the web and mobile platform to learn about and buy the icon products of Italian gastronomy directly from the workshops and the artisan producers in the territory such as bakeries, pastry shops, butchers, dairies.
The investment in this innovative startup is part of the strategy of the publisher of Il Fatto Quotidiano which aims to diversify and complement the conventional business and its industrial plan, whose focus, of course, always remains on the editorial content. Foodscovery’s e-commerce is a value-added service for those who can learn the gastronomic products of excellence of all the Italian regions, by reading their features, stories and their protagonists on www.ilfattoquotidiano.it, then having the opportunity to buy them directly on www.foodscovery.com
Editoriale Il Fatto has currently invested Euro 250,000 in Foodscovery, by acquiring a share of about 7%, with the option to go up to 12% in relation to the achievement of agreed targets and up to 20% with an average agreement for equity.
Foodscovery was founded in 2014 with an investment of Euro 500,000 by FI.R.A. – Finanziaria Regionale Abruzzese – which manages the Fund Starthope, Seed Capital Fund for investments in startups that have offices in Abruzzo. Foodscovery was the second operation concluded by FI.R.A. which invested almost 14 million in 22 startups, between 2014 and 2015, with the involvement of business angels and institutional investors.
Today, in addition to Editoriale Il Fatto, other players participated in the subscription of the capital increase in Foodscovery: Digital Magics, business incubator listed on AIM Italy of the Italian Stock Exchange (symbol: DM), which holds 3% of the startup and will go up to 5.4% based on the objectives achieved; Finanziaria Regionale Abruzzese (FI.R.A.), which has invested Euro 300,000 in this new round and which holds 29.6% of Foodscovery, and two major business angels Claudio Di Zanni (2.6%) and Rosario Didonna (0.8 %). The Founders of Foodscovery – Fabio Di Gioia and Mario Sorbo – hold 41% of the shares.
Among the members of the startup is also the German publishing group Axel Springer.
Thanks to this operation Foodscovery will consolidate its position in the Italian market, by launching a new version of the website and by expanding the number of excellent Italian producers present on www.foodscovery.com, in order to offer users a complete range of products throughout the Italian territory. It will also strengthen its team, currently consisting of 12 employees, with the entry of five new professionals: a designer, a commercial, an administrative/business analyst, a SEM specialist, and a SEO specialist. Foodscovery will focus on internationalization with the launch of the platform initially on the UK market, bringing the Made in Italy food in Europe.
The business model of Foodscovery is built on innovation to support small local economies through the creation and development of an automated system for collection and delivery in 24/48 hours, that allows to receive and enjoy more than 1,500 delicacies in the catalog .
Digital Magics ha strutturato un programma di Open Innovation per Editoriale Il Fatto: valutando le startup italiane più promettenti del settore food e individuando in Foodscovery il partner coerente con la strategia dell’editore.
Digital Magics has organized an Open Innovation program Editorial The Fact: evaluating the most promising startups of the Italian food industry and finding partners in Foodscovery consistent with the strategy of the publisher.
Rocco Micucci, President of FI.R.A., said: “The success achieved by Foodscovery confirms the foresight of the choice of the Abruzzo Region to invest in startups through FI.R.A. To the 22 partcipations of StartHope will be added by the end of 2016, another 15/20 investments to make Abruzzo the first Italian region in terms of land startups financed with public and private capital.”
Cinzia Monteverdi, Chief Executive Officer of Editoriale Il Fatto, said: “The acquisition of the shares in Foodscovery responds to a specific business plan that looks to the future and that in today’s publishing companies must aim to diversify. At the same time, however, it may be the enhancement of the traditional core business. Foodscovery, in fact, is an e-commerce project in food with a significant development of internationalization which also will be joined by a project of publishing related content.”
Fabio Di Gioia, Founder and CEO of Foodscovery, said: “We are very happy with what has been done so far and we want to thank all our members for their support, which enabled us to achieve important results. This new capital increase will allow us to continue our growing process and above all to initiate a phase of internationalization of the platform, crucial for positioning Foodscovery as a marketplace leader in Europe of local gastronomic specialties, sent directly by the producers themselvesâ€.
Layla Pavone, Managing Director of Digital Magics for Industry Innovation, said: “This operation, which involved us in the role of ‘directors’, is a concrete example of how Italian companies can innovate to grow through the contributions of startups”.
This press release is online on www.digitalmagics.com and can be found in the Investor Relations – Press Releases section.
Editoriale Il Fatto is the publisher of Il Fatto Quotidiano, born in 2009 thanks to an extraordinary collective participation of nearly 40,000 readers who have subscribed even before the newspaper came out on newsstands. The community of Il Fatto has continued to grow around its main products, the newspaper and the website www.ilfattoquotidiano.it.. With its 50,000 average daily copies and a site that has more than 100 million page views per month with over 15 million monthly unique browsers connected, Editoriale Il Fatto represents a «unicum» in the Italian media landscape. It has been enriched over time with new publications: Mia, the app of the newspaper, BUONO! the Insert about food and wine, FQInsider, ilFattoTV, FQmagazine, FQBlog, FqRadio, Social Network (FB, Twitter), PARTEC!PA events, to be closer to the needs of the reader without betraying the spirit and founding principles that characterize it from birth: to remain a free and independent newspaper.
Foodscovery is a web and mobile platform that allows any user to order icon products of Italian gastronomy workshops directly from the most representative labs of the local tradition, such as bakeries, pastry shops, butchers, dairies and many others. At the center of the business model lies innovation aimed to support small local economies through the creation and development of an automated system for collection and delivery in 24/48h which makes it possible to enjoy more than 1500 authentic delicacies in Italy and throughout Europe. The innovative startup team effort is devoted to the research and networking of the micro-niche manufacturers, like hidden treasures scattered throughout the Italian territory and discovered by “food-scout”: a careful selection of true artisans of local culinary traditions, from bread to pastries, from meat to cheese, which allows to enjoy all the thousand and one flavors of Italy.
Digital Magics, listed on AIM Italia (symbol: DM), is an incubator of digital projects that provides consulting services and acceleration services to startups and enterprises, to facilitate the development of new technological businesses. Thanks to the partnership with Talent Garden and Tamburi Investment Partners, Digital Magics has created the most important national platform for innovation for DIGITAL MADE IN ITALY, by offering services for the digital transformation and “Open Innovation†to excellent enterprises, while providing support to innovative startups to create successful projects, from conception to IPO. The incubation and acceleration services offered by Digital Magics are active in the TAG co-working campuses present throughout Italy. Complementary services include investment activities, which have produced over the years a portfolio of 51 investments in startups, scaleups and digital spinoffs with high growth rates. Accelerated companies are flanked by Digital Magics LAB, a team of highly experienced business partners, and benefit not only from the large network of private and institutional investors that support them through “club deals”, but also from the many partner companies that support them on an industrial scale.
Integrae SIM acts as a Nomad and Specialist under the AIM Italia Issuers Regulations. For communication transmissions, Digital Magics makes use of the SDIR-NIS circuit, operated by BIt Market Services, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group
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For Further information:
Editoriale Il Fatto – Press Office
Silvia De Pasquale – Mail: s.depasquale@ilfattoquotidiano.it
Tel. 06 32818236
Luca Motta – Mail: l.motta@ilfattoquotidiano.com
Tel. 06 32818516
Digital Magics – Press Office
Giorgio Bocchieri – Mail: giorgio.bocchieri@digitalmagics.com
Tel. 02 52505202 – Mob. 334 6853078
SEC Public and Institutional Relations – Media Relations
Angelo Vitale – Mail: vitale@secrp.it
Tel. 02 6249923
IR Top – Investor Relations
Floriana Vitale – Mail: f.vitale@irtop.com
Domenico Gentile – Mail: d.gentile@irtop.com
Tel. 02 45473884
Integrae SIM – Nomad
Mail: info@integraesim.it
Tel. 02 78625300
