Sharing economy is widespreading and paving the way for innovative economic models worldwide and in Italy too.
Startups are the main players in this change: with innovative projects, are driving us towards a capitalism model different from the one we grew up in. The Startup Intelligence Osservatorio of Politecnico di Milano focused its research on this topic, listing 195 startups operating in the Sharing and P2P Economy sectors worldwide, for a total funding of just over 4 billion dollars and an average investment of about 25 million dollars.
The entities surveyed offer highly heterogeneous solutions ranging from five main areas identified by the research conducted by Antonio Ghezzi: P2P Lending, sharing of tangible goods among peers; Pseudo-sharing, consumption of goods provided by a company; Gig Economy, supply of small spot services (mainly errands) among peers; Professional Services, supply of services engaging professionals or companies; Pooling Economy, supply of services through the sharing of tangible goods among consumers.
Italy too is not short of significant innovative companies in the sector. The Startup Intelligence Osservatorio carried out a survey of 26 Italian startups, mainly located between Milan (9 startups) and Rome (8 startups). There are a total of 5 initiatives in the South and Islands, distributed among Potenza (2), Cagliari (1), Naples (1) and Catania (1). In the North, in addition to Milan, there are 2 startups in the Treviso area, 1 initiative in Verona and 1 in Turin.
Taken together, Italian startups raised 23 million dollars in funding, with an average per startup of just under 1 million dollars. The most financed, with more than 5 million dollars raised, is the Verona-based Supermarket24, a P2P platform for requesting purchases made by other users and delivered to their homes. Second with a 3.7 million dollar revenue is ProntoPro, a professional marketplace for one-off services. Moovenda, the home food delivery platform, round things off with $2.2 million.
Let’s see in detail which Italian startups are the most financed according to the different areas identified by the research.
Professional Services
It is the most extensive cluster on a national level: 9 startups have been identified with offices distributed in the cities of Catania, Milan, Potenza, Rome and Treviso. ProntoPro is the startup receiving the most of the funds (3,796,673 dollars) ranking second on a national level. The startup proposes a marketplace to connect the demand for occasional services with the supply by professionals. Jointly (1,177,800 dollars) comes in second: it is a Milan-based startup founded in 2014 with the aim of providing shared welfare services to companies. Mathesia rounds things off (822,851 dollars), a crowdsourcing platform based on applying mathematical models to solve complex business problems.
The other startups received funding of less than 614 thousand dollars.
Pooling economy
Pooling Economy cluster includes 6 initiatives distributed on the national territory, with an important predominance in the south-center.
Antlos is the most funded startup within the cluster with 1.1 million dollars raised. Its innovative project is geared towards offering experiences and holidays through the chartering of boats owned by local skippers. Like Nausdream, Sardinian startup, based in Cagliari.
Scooterino ($614,216 collected) ranks second in the list: a Rome-based startup offering ride-sharing services inspired by Uber, however, presenting the scooter as a sharing vehicle to respond to the severe mobility problems in Rome.
Another two initiatives are JoJob and iGoOn, both operating in the same field and capable of raising more than 400 thousand dollars. The first is more focused on the corporate car-pooling service, while iGoOn, although offering a similar service, focuses its service on the individual.
The other startups collected funding of less than 324,000 dollars .
P2P Lending
This section just includes projects and collects a total of only 366,000 dollars in funding. In detail, Sharewood is a startup born in 2016 with headquarters in Milan focused on peer-to-peer rental of sports equipment. Together Price, on the other hand, focuses on sharing accounts for online subscription services and the consequent sharing of service costs.
Pseudo-sharing
This section lists 4 initiatives arranged between Rome and Milan. In the forefront of the cluster, Drexcode, able to raise more than 2 million dollars, offering a platform for renting women’s clothing, including home delivery and collection.
Second in the ranking was Scuter. Likewise Scooterino, it deals with the problem of mobility in Rome, offering special three-wheel electric scooters to share. An offering similar in Milan, yet with normal electric scooters, is that of Mimoto, a startup born in 2015 capable of raising a total of 100,000 dollars in funding.
The other startups collected funding of less than 111,000 dollars.
Gig Economy
5 startups have been classified here: 3 of them are based in Rome. The rankings is overwhelmed, both within the cluster and nationally, by the Verona-based startup SuperMercato24, likely to exceed the threshold of 5 million dollars in funding. Spreaded throughout the country thanks to various partnerships with the main food retail chains, this initiative identifies shoppers who buy according to the demands and needs of users delivering goods to homes.
Second in the cluster, and third overall, Moveenda ($ 2,253,615), a Rome-based startup operating mainly in Rome and Naples for home delivery of meals ordered from affiliated restaurants.
(originally published by InsuranceUp)
