CrunchBase : The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Next Insurance, MapLight Ther

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Next Insurance, MapLight Therapeutics Hit It Big

From an aerospace and defense startup to a company making the next-generation of motors, this was a strong week for big rounds. Five startups raised nine-figure rounds and another fell just $1 million short. With the holidays looming and a slowdown surely coming, there may not be many more weeks like this left this year.

1. Next Insurance, $265M, insurtech: The week was led by a big insurtech raise. Next Insurance raised a $265 million strategic round from insurance giants Allstate and Allianz’s investment arm, Allianz X. The Palo Alto, California-based startup, which specializes in small business insurance products, says it has now raised more than $1.1 billion since being founded in 2016. The deal forms a new strategic partnership with Allstate and deepens an existing reinsurance relationship with Allianz. Interestingly, Next did not offer a valuation with the new round. The company was valued at $4 billion in April 2021 when it raised a $250 million Series E led by FinTLV and Battery Ventures. Many valuations of startups, however, have dropped since then. Next, which uses AI and machine learning to help with the purchasing process and provide coverages, serves more than 500,000 business owners. The round is one of the largest raised this year in the insurtech industry.

2. MapLight Therapeutics, $225M, biotech: San Francisco-based MapLight Therapeutics locked up a $225 million Series C as it looks to continue to advance its treatments for neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions. The company has a trio of biopharmaceuticals at different stages of development to treat a variety of problems including schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The round was led by Novo Holdings. Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $270 million, per Crunchbase data.

3. Shield AI, $200M, aerospace: Defense tech startups don’t always see a ton of funding, but that didn’t stop Shield AI from raising the biggest round of the year thus far in the sector. Shield AI, the defense and aerospace startup creating AI pilots, raised a $200 million Series F co-led by Riot Ventures and Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund at a $2.7 billion valuation. The round comes less than a year after the San Diego-based startup was valued at $2.2 billion after raising $60 million in December. The company’s AI software, called Hivemind, enables aircraft to operate autonomously in high-threat environments. Founded in 2015, Shield AI has raised approximately $773 million, according to Crunchbase.

4. Infinitum Electric, $185M, industrial automation: This was a big round that may have gone unnoticed by some. Infinitum, which creates light air-core motors, raised a $185 million Series E led by Just Climate. The raise brings the Austin, Texas-based startup’s total funding to date to a whopping $350 million, according to the company. The new cash will be used to expand business and increase production of its motors to help meet decarbonization demand in the industrial sector. New motor tech is important, as the implementation of such in the U.S. industrial and commercial sectors has the potential to save 127 terawatt-hours per year — a cost savings of $14.7 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Another way to think about that; the equivalent of the annual electricity use of all households in California and North Carolina combined.

5. Terremoto Biosciences, $175M, biotech: South San Francisco-based biotech firm Terremoto Biosciences closed a big $175 million Series B. No lead investor was announced, but those taking part in the round include Novo Holdings and OrbiMed. The startup is developing targeted, small molecule medicines for a wide variety of severe diseases. The new round brings Terremoto’s total amount raised to $250 million, per the company.

6. Seurat Technologies, $99M, 3D printing: 3D metal-printing startup Seurat Technologies locked up a $99 million Series C led by NVentures — Nvidia’s venture capital arm — and Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund. The company did not announce a valuation, but Reuters reported the cash infusion values the company at around $350 million. Seurat’s green energy-powered Area Printing technology allows for the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from the parts manufacturing process while also possibly eliminating supply chain issues, according to the company. Seurat anticipates its printing technology will have the potential to directly mitigate as much as 100 million tons of CO₂ by 2030. Founded in 2015, the company has now raised nearly $180 million, per Crunchbase data.

7. Kasa Living, $70M, hospitality: New York-based hospitality startup Kasa Living closed a $70 million Series C co-led by Citi Ventures and FirstMark Capital. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $126 million, per Crunchbase.

8. FusionAuth, $65M, cybersecurity: Broomfield, Colorado-based cybersecurity firm FusionAuth raised a $65 million funding round led by Updata Partners. Founded in 2018, this is the company’s first outside funding round, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) Alianza, $61M, cloud: Pleasant Grove, Utah-based cloud communications platform Alianza raised $61 million in growth equity and debt financing. The company did not disclose the ratio of equity and debt. The equity round is supported by a syndicate of undisclosed institutional and strategic investors. The debt financing was provided by Texas Capital Bank. Founded in 2009, the company has raised $138 million, per Crunchbase.

9. (tied) Chainguard, $61M, cybersecurity: Kirkland, Washington-based software supply chain security startup Chainguard completed a $61 million Series B led by Spark Capital. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $116 million, per Crunchbase.

Big global deals
The biggest round outside the U.S. came from a surprise location this week — South America

  • Brazil-based fintech startup QI Tech raised approximately $205 million in a Series B.

Barrons : Japan Has Fallen Far Behind in the Chipmaking Business. It’s Plotting

Japan Has Fallen Far Behind in the Chipmaking Business. It’s Plotting a Comeback.

Does Japan do it better? This burning question of the 1980s may be returning in a new context: luring semiconductor investment.

Japan has even more ground than the U.S. to regain in the chipmaking game. In 1990, the country produced half the world’s semiconductors. That’s around 10% now. Its most advanced fabs can produce 40 nanometer chips, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reports. State of the art is 3 nm.

Tokyo, like Washington, has big plans to do better. Its 2022 Economic Security and Promotion Act was a rough equivalent to the U.S. Chips and Science Act. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government aims to triple sales of domestically produced chips by 2030 to 115 trillion yen ($762 billion). It’s already committed a trillion yen or so in subsidies.

Japan does seem to have taken an early lead in the new semiconductor race. Global giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (ticker: TSM) is ahead of schedule on a new “fab” in the southwestern city of Kumamoto and planning a second one. Production at its megaproject outside Phoenix was lately delayed by a year till 2025. CEO Mark Liu cited an “insufficient number of skilled workers.”

There’s an apples-to-oranges element in this comparison. Japan is looking to hit a solid single, manufacturing relatively thick microchips to supply its electronics and auto industries today. The U.S. is swinging for the fences: churning out the ultrathin chips of tomorrow in Arizona.

Still, Japan may be more on the right track. Taiwan Semi is financing its Kumamoto fab jointly with two core customers, Sony Group (6758.Japan) and auto parts powerhouse Denso (6902.Japan). The government is kicking in close to Y500 billion.

In Phoenix, Taiwan Semi has to build first and qualify for Chips Act funding later. In theory that would bar it from building anything in China over the next decade, though a waiver is expected. “The U.S. approach is more ambitious, but Japan’s more focused strategy is more likely to succeed,” says Mario Morales, who heads semiconductor research at consultant IDC.

Japan has maintained global leadership at key points in the chip supply chain, particularly equipment and chemicals. Other links, like testing and packaging, can be sourced relatively nearby. “All that lives in Asia,” Morales says. “The Chips Act doesn’t address the supply chain.”

A centralized Japanese government can smooth over roadblocks that have become endemic to building anything big and complicated in the multijurisdictional, litigious U.S.—from providing a community playground to fighting environmental lawsuits. “We need to revisit 1970s environmental laws to make them more streamlined and predictable,” says Sujai Shivakumar, head of CSIS’ Renewing American Innovation Project.

Japan, after decades of deflation, is also cheaper on key inputs like construction and labor, adds Christopher Miller, a Tufts Fletcher School professor who studies the chip sector.

Japan Inc. does have its own long-ball ambitions in semiconductors. A dozen top names are teaming with U.S.-domiciled IBM (IBM) and the government on a new venture called Rapidus, which promises to produce 2-nanometer chips by 2027. Shivakumar is skeptical. “This looks like a bit of a Hail Mary pass, trying to leapfrog several generations of technology,” he says.

The same might be said of both countries’ overarching goal of a semiconductor industry buffered from Taiwan’s unique vulnerabilities. “You can bet that the most advanced stuff will still be made in Taiwan,” Morales says.

It’s still worth trying.

Barrons : This New Pain Pill Could Replace Opioids. It’s an Opportunity for Inve

This New Pain Pill Could Replace Opioids. It’s an Opportunity for Investors.
The new Vertex drug is in trials now. Investors might want to make their bets soon.

Americans filled roughly one opioid pain prescription for every two U.S. adults in 2020—despite a raging opioid epidemic, where 80,000 people a year fatally overdose. Everyone knows the drugs are dangerous, but patients need pain relief, and the alternatives are limited.

Americans filled roughly one opioid pain prescription for every two U.S. adults in 2020—despite a raging opioid epidemic, where 80,000 people a year fatally overdose. Everyone knows the drugs are dangerous, but patients need pain relief, and the alternatives are limited.
A nonaddictive pain pill that works as well as an opioid, with none of the same addiction risk and side effects, would be an instant blockbuster. Drug companies have met with repeated failures in their efforts to develop one, but Vertex Pharmaceuticals (ticker: VRTX) could be close to a breakthrough.

Late this year or early next, the company plans to announce the results of four studies of a pain drug it calls VX-548. Three of the studies are testing VX-548 taken over a short period as a treatment for acute pain, while a fourth aims to measure the efficacy of the drug when taken over a longer duration for chronic pain.

If the trials are successful, sales of VX-548 could hit $5.1 billion a year by 2030, according to Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger. That would be transformative for Vertex, which currently sells treatments for cystic fibrosis and records annual sales of under $10 billion.

“The opportunity is wildly underestimated,” says Risinger.

He compares the potential of the Vertex pain pill to that of Wegovy and the other GLP-1 obesity drugs that made Eli Lilly
and Novo Nordisk the most valuable companies in biopharma. “Obesity drugs had underperformed and failed for 20 years, and people didn’t contemplate how big the market was,” Risinger says. “The exact same is the case here for pain.”

Some scientists who study pain, however, aren’t yet convinced by VX-548. They say that while the need for the drug is clear, its efficacy isn’t. In an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in August, Dr. Mark S. Wallace, a professor in the department of anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego, wrote that the methodology of early trials of VX-548 make it difficult to gauge how effective the drug is at reducing pain.

In a study of patients recovering from tummy-tuck surgeries, and another of patients recovering from bunion corrections, subjects who received a high dose of VX-548 reported more reduction in pain than those who received a placebo or an opioid.

But Wallace points to potential problems with the trial, suggesting that the opioid used may not have been given frequently enough, and noting that patients were allowed to take ibuprofen along with the medicines being tested but that data on how they used the ibuprofen weren’t presented.

The risk that the next set of trials could find that the drug has limited efficacy will chill investors who watched the potentially multibillion-dollar market for Aduhelm, Biogen hotly anticipated Alzheimer’s disease therapy, deflate over the same concerns in 2021.

A Vertex spokesperson told Barron’s that both the tummy-tuck and bunion-removal trials were “unambiguously” successful. The spokesperson said the Phase 2 trials weren’t designed to compare the effect of VX-548 with the effect of the opioid, but that the continuing Phase 3 trials are. As for the ibuprofen, the spokesperson said that allowing for its use is “typical” in this type of study, and that data on how it was used weren’t included in the report because it wasn’t what the study was designed to measure.

Even if VX-548 proves less potent than the company hopes, it could open the door to better nonopioids in future. Yale neurology professor Dr. Stephen Waxman points to the earliest statins, drugs that prevent heart attack and stroke. While first statins weren’t particularly effective, “they encouraged the development of subsequent generations of statins, which were very important,” says Waxman.

But nonopioid pain drugs have a history of disappointing investors. The most recent example, nerve growth factor inhibitors, were plagued with safety issues: Pfizer and Lilly got as far as a Food and Drug Administration rejection of their version of the drug before dropping it in 2021, while Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) killed its version late last year, despite some positive Phase 3 data. Today, the only nerve growth factor inhibitor pain medicines on the market are drugs for pets.

VX-548 works differently than opioids and other pain medicines, which block transmission of pain within the central nervous system. VX-548 interrupts pain signals before they reach the brain, blocking a specific sodium channel that transmits pain in the peripheral nervous system. While the science underlying the medicine has existed for decades, earlier efforts to design similar pills resulted in medicines with serious side effects. VX-548 is more precise in its targeting, and its side effects appear minimal.

The question for investors is whether to buy the stock ahead of the coming trial results. If the studies show that VX-548 is better than a placebo and as good as an opioid—with no worse side effects—FDA approval and widespread adoption could come quickly.

In a note out in early October, Goldman Sachs analyst Salveen Richter wrote that if VX-548 appears to work as well as an opioid in the Phase 3 trials focused on acute pain, Vertex shares, recently $362, would be worth an additional $58 each. If the drug works even better than opioids, she writes that it would be worth an additional $88 per share. In a best-case scenario—if the chronic-pain study is also positive—Richter estimates that the stock would be worth an additional $119 per share.

Richter is less concerned about the downside risk if the trials fail. She says the market currently isn’t giving Vertex much credit for its pain program, and that the company’s cystic fibrosis franchise alone is worth $326 per share. Leerink’s Risinger is similarly undeterred by the risk. “It’s possible the stock could be down close to 20%” if all the trials fail, he says. “But the upside, if there’s success in those three trials, is quite significant.”

If approved, VX-548 would be an easy sell to treat chronic pain, where opioids are less effective and the potential for abuse is highest. But the first trials are focused on acute pain, a more challenging market because generic opioids are cheap and seen as less of a risk when given over a short duration. Still, Risinger says he’s certain that insurers will pay more for an opioid alternative. “I cannot imagine an insurance company or [pharmacy benefit manager] saying to a doctor or patient, we need you to fail the opioid first,” he says.

For investors, a bet placed now on the outcome of the pain trials, while risky, could be a smart one. The downside risk seems acceptable in the face of the size of the opportunity. Wall Street is appropriately skeptical of new pain medicines, but based on the early studies, Vertex’s drug seems to have a good shot at succeeding in the trials. If the drugs work, it will be good news for society—and for investors.

Corrections & Amplifications: Animal health company Zoetis sells two nerve growth factor inhibitors, one for dogs and one for cats. A previous version of this story mistakenly stated that Zoetis’s cat pain medicine is the only nerve growth factor inhibitor on the market.

>>> Weekend Papers Summary

Weekend Papers Summary

FINANCIAL TIMES
-American employers created 150,000 new jobs last month — fewer than forecast and barely half of September’s revised figure of 297,000. Many economists had expected a total of 180,000 new posts for October. The numbers helped boost stocks as well as US Treasuries, as investors bet that the slowdown in the labor market made it more likely that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates further in the coming months.
-Flatbread loaves have become a critical commodity in Gaza, where almost everyone is facing hunger after a month of siege. The bakery must cater for thousands of displaced people from northern Gaza and former customers of other bakeries forced to close by war, even as its own staff contend with the devastation around them.
-Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah gave a fiery speech, threatening and criticizing both Israel and the US. But, he fell short of declaring all-out war. Hezbollah has been conspicuously silent since the war began. Lebanese officials familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking told the FT that his group had come under intense diplomatic pressure to keep its response proportional to avoid a spillover conflict. They said Nasrallah “understood” that Lebanon was in no position to withstand a war, and was not interested in an aggressive escalation.
-Andrew Charlton, a former Qantas executive and managing director of consultancy Aviation Advocacy, said Australians used to be proud of Qantas. “If you take that loyalty for granted?.?.?.?that starts to chip away. The seemingly ceaseless scandals and service lapses mean that now, Qantas has even lost Australia,” said Charlton.
-Russia launched dozens of aerial attacks at targets across Ukraine, amid growing concerns in Kiev that western support could dry up. Ukrainian officials said the strikes included 40 drones as well as missiles that targeted 10 regions, including the city of Lviv near the Polish border, which had not been hit since September. More than half of the drones were shot down, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
-Central banks’ interest rate policy may have shifted toward a freeze or even cuts. The ECB has chosen a freeze, as have the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, and the Bank of England, joining central banks in countries ranging from Czech Republic to New Zealand. Central banks in some emerging markets including Brazil and Poland are engaged in outright cuts. The halt in the rate-rising cycle has prompted optimism among bond market investors that leading economies are close to vanquishing the inflationary upsurge.
-The Chinese communist Party has banned officials from pouring their savings into domestic Chinese private equity funds, according to state media this week. The ban officially aims to tackle the myriad corruption risks that accompany cadres indirectly taking shares in companies.
-Despite the rush of patriotism in Israel following the October 7 attacks, even those on the right are furious with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The anger is palpable in the narrow lanes of Machane Yehuda, a big covered market in downtown Jerusalem that has long been a Likud stronghold: bibi is finished.
-Giorgia Meloni’s government has proposed constitutional changes to allow for the direct election of Italy’s prime minister in order to strengthening the office of Prime Minister’s role and ensuring that future coalitions last longer.
“We have done what we pledged to do, giving Italy the historic opportunity of a simple revolution,” Meloni said in a press conference, calling her proposal “the mother of all the reforms”.
-AP Moller-Maersk plans to axe at least 10,000 jobs as the container shipping industry’s pandemic-driven boom gives way to weaker demand during the economic downturn.
-Republican lawmakers’ election of Mike Johnson as speaker of the US House of Representatives will drive the Party further away from Democrats on the issue of climate change, deepening divisions that are likely to be among the most prominent of the 2024 election.

NEW YORK TIMES
-Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to rebuff Blinken’s request for ‘humanitarian pauses.’After a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any cease-fire would hinge on the release of hostages. 
-In a worldwide war of words, Russia, China and Iran Back Hamas. Officials and researchers say the deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before.
-Israel used 2,000 pound bombs during an airstrike in a dense area north of Gaza City, a Times analysis shows.
-Hamas put wounded fighters on departure lists, delaying efforts to evacuate foreigners, a US official said.
-Trump has been temporarily released from a gag order. A panel of a federal appeals court lifted the order for at least two weeks, freeing Donald Trump to say what he wants about prosecutors and witnesses. 
-Donald Trump’s lawyers repeatedly criticized a judge’s clerk, overshadowing Eric Trump’s testimony.
-Donald Trump used misleading and recycled claims to talk about energy and jobs at a Houston rally.
-Jurors in Trump defamation trial to go unnamed for their own protection. A judge in the case filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll said that Donald Trump had not abided by gag orders in other cases, and that could lead to harassment.
-Shootings in Maine: President Biden has traveled a grim path through American communities grieving in the wake of mass shootings. On Friday, he added another to the list.
-Libraries across Europe appear to be facing attacks from cybercriminals. At Britain’s national library, an “incident” is sending scholars back to an analog age.
-China and Australia are trying to reconcile. Both sides have been cautious in the run-up to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing, avoiding terms like “reset” in favor of “stabilization.”

NY POST
-Mark Zuckerberg suffered a torn ACL while training for an upcoming mixed martial arts competition, revealing Friday he’s undergone surgery and is on the road to recovery. “Tore my ACL sparring and just got out of surgery to replace it,” the Meta CEO shared on Instagram, along with a slew of photos from his hospital bed. “Grateful for the doctors and team taking care of me. I was training for a competitive MMA fight early next year, but now that’s delayed a bit.
-Attempts by Hamas to smuggle wounded terrorists out of the Palestinian territory have delayed ongoing efforts to get foreign nationals, including Americans, out of the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration revealed on Friday. 
“Hamas was not allowing anybody to leave,” a senior Biden administration official said during a call with reporters. “And then they said that they would allow foreign nationals to leave, subject to a number of wounded Palestinians being allowed to leave, as well, which of course is not objectionable.
-Elon Musk teased the release of his artificial intelligence startup xAI’s first tool on Friday. Musk, who has expressed concern about AI in the past, revealed that his firm will “release its first AI to a select group” beginning Saturday. “In some important respects, it is the best that currently exists,” Musk said without elaborating on who would test the tool or its purported capabilities.
Laurent Chekroun​
Equity Sales
Makor Securities London Ltd. | Makor Group
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CoinCodex : Toncoin (TON) Blockchain Breaks Record for World’s Fastest Network,

Toncoin (TON) Blockchain Breaks Record for World’s Fastest Network, Beating Solana, Polygon, Visa, and MasterCard

Key highlights:

  • TON has set a new record as the world’s fastest network accredited by blockchain security firm Certik
  • TON surpasses renowned blockchains and payment systems including Solana, Polygon, Visa, and MasterCard with 104,715 transactions per second
  • TON is trading at $ 2.24, halfway to its all-time high of $ 4.91 from December 2021
Telegram Open Network (TON) has become the buzz of the blockchain space a few hours after it achieved a new world record for the fastest blockchain with most TPS.
Following this event, TON had taken to Twitter to announce its new title as the "Fastest Blockchain in the World".

TON Achieves 104,715 TPS During GWR Public Performance Test

TON has joined the list of prominent networks in the blockchain landscape. The network has achieved remarkable success in its attempt to set a new world record for transaction speed.
On October 31st, the network embarked on a public test where it processed about 42 million transactions at an unimaginable speed of 104,715 transactions per second (TPS).
With this significant achievement, TON has outperformed leading and popular blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and many others. As such, the blockchain has emerged as the fastest and most scalable network among them all, successfully holding its own against other low-cost and efficient crypto networks.


WWD : As M&A Activity in Italy’s Supply Chain Continues, Eurmoda Group Buys Macu

As M&A Activity in Italy’s Supply Chain Continues, Eurmoda Group Buys Macuz

A leader in the country in the production and supply of accessories for high-end fashion brands, Eurmoda has acquired 100 percent of Macuz, a storied Florentine company active in the production of top-quality metal accessories.

MILAN – The wave of consolidation in Italy’s supply chain continues.

Eurmoda Group, which produces and supplies accessories for high-end fashion brands, has acquired 100 percent of Macuz Srl, a storied Florentine company active in the production of top-quality metal accessories.

Through this acquisition, Eurmoda aims to reach sales of 100 million euros in two years. It currently reports sales of 50 million euros, while Macuz has revenues of between 25 and 30 million euros.

Established in Italy’s Veneto region in 1986, Eurmoda was founded with the aim to synergistically combine the expertise of companies producing high fashion accessories with mechanical and technological skills derived from eyewear in the Belluno district and goldsmithing in the Vicenza district.

In October 2019, private equity firm Mindful Capital Partners took control of Eurmoda, creating the holding company Margot SpA, with the aim to build a platform of excellence in the sector throughout Italy.

Since then, the company has acquired Alce Srl in Valsamoggia, near Bologna, and ABC Morini Srl in Scandicci, near Florence.

In January, the holding company of Margot and ABC Morini will merge into Eurmoda.

“Macuz represents one of the best expressions of Italian know-how in the field of fashion excellence,” said Marco Vecellio, chief executive officer of Eurmoda. “A reality that has been one of the pioneers in the development of Italy’s manufacturing sector in the luxury industry. We are really happy to be able to combine our skills, reinforcing a leadership based on uncompromising quality and a solid entrepreneurial culture based on sustainability and enhancement of the territory.”

Founded in Florence in 1952 by Marcello and Alma Macuz, Macuz is recognized for its high-quality craftsmanship and connection to the territory and will allow Eurmoda to expand its customer base and further strengthen its technologies, skills and plants through a vertical service and a fully integrated supply chain. The Macuz family will reinvest in the group and remain actively involved in the operational management of the companies.

“[CEO] Auro Macuz’s talent and entrepreneurial foresight have made the company a true jewel in its sector in Italy, with a history of growth that has lasted more than 70 years,” said Andrea Tuccio, managing partner of Mindful Capital Partners. “The quality of its products, recognized by the biggest international fashion houses, is the result of a corporate culture constantly striving for excellence in all components of the value chain, in which people, their passion and skills, occupy a central place. We are really proud to have accompanied Eurmoda in this operation, creating a group capable of playing a leading role for Made in Italy in a fast-growing market.”

The production hub will continue to grow, “investing in people, focusing in particular on female participation at all seniority levels, and on sustainability, for instance through the use of continuous recycling systems, photovoltaic panels, and solutions for air purification and heat recovery,” said Eurmoda and Mindful Capital Partners in a joint statement.


“I am sure that the coming together of Eurmoda’s and MCP’s expertise will ensure the continuation of a sustainable growth path that has never stopped, and that has led us to become one of the most appreciated players in the world of accessories for high fashion brands,” said Auro Macuz.

Small and medium-size companies make up the majority of Italy’s 62,000 fashion firms, according to Confindustria Moda. They form the backbone of Made in Italy production, a supply chain that works with the best luxury brands in the world. Entrepreneurs have realized it has become essential to protect this pipeline, which is expected to drive more consolidation, more M&A activity, more nuanced partnerships and more efforts to map out common goals.

For example, in 2021, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Prada Group joined forces to acquire a majority stake in Filati Biagioli Modesto SpA, which specializes in cashmere and precious yarn production. In June, the companies teamed up again, buying a 15 percent stake each in knitwear and fine yarns specialist Luigi Fedeli e Figlio Srl. Both Zegna and Prada have over the years invested in building their pipelines and supply chains, as well as their own manufacturing plants in Italy.


In May, in the first such deal for Chanel and Brunello Cucinelli, the companies partnered on an acquisition of a 24.5 percent stake each in Italian cashmere manufacturer Cariaggi Lanificio SpA. This was a development in a deal that was signed last year by Cariaggi and Cucinelli, the latter’s first such merger and acquisition. At that time, Cucinelli revealed he was buying a 43 percent stake in Cariaggi, his longtime cashmere supplier. While Chanel over the years has bought stakes in 40 suppliers, 15 of which are based in Italy, this is the first time it partnered with another established fashion brand.

Gruppo Florence has grown over the past three years to control around 24 companies, from knitwear and informal outerwear manufacturers to footwear specialists, reaching sales of 600 million euros — and there are no signs it plans to stop here. The founding families of these companies have agreed to reinvest minority stakes in the holding.


In April, investment holding San Quirico SpA acquired a 75 percent stake in MinervaHub, emerging as a leading aggregator of small and medium-size makers of components for luxury brands, from chains and metal details to galvanic treatments and hand embroideries.

The remaining 25 percent stake remains in the hands of one of the sellers, Xenon Private Equity, with other coinvestors that include president Matteo Marzotto. MinervaHub reports sales of more than 170 million euros, has a portfolio of more than 1,000 clients, of which are 20 among the main luxury brands, and 700-plus employees. In July, it took control of 100 percent of New and Best H.F. Srl, known for its expertise in high-end leather goods, shoes, ready-to-wear and accessories, and surface finishings.

>>> Sempra Energy beats by $0.07, misses on revs; guides FY23 EPS above consensu

Sempra Energy beats by $0.07, misses on revs; guides FY23 EPS above consensus; reaffirms FY24 EPS guidance (72.08)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.08 per share, $0.07 better than the FactSet Consensus of $1.01; revenues fell 7.8% year/year to $3.33 bln vs the $3.68 bln FactSet Consensus.
  • Co issues upside guidance for FY23, sees EPS of at or above high end of $4.30-4.60 vs. $4.50 FactSet Consensus.
  • Co reaffirms guidance for FY24, sees EPS of $4.55-4.90 vs. $4.78 FactSet Consensus.
  • At Sempra Texas, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) continues to build out one of the largest pure-play transmission and distribution platforms in America to meet the state's growth in residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Premise growth in Oncor's service territory is estimated to be 2%, approximately double the national average. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas set 10 peak demand records this summer and the Oncor team safely maintained grid reliability while investing in the expansion and modernization of its growing energy networks.
  • Expecting 10% to 20% increase above current five-year $40 billion capital plan.