Massimiliano Costa

My angel investment ContentRadar is coming out of beta today. They use AI to make content marketing and social media easier and less time consuming. As a happy beta customer I am very excited for them to release their product to the public. Onwards and upwards team! Katia Yakovleva Riccardo ♦︎ Buzzotta with kind support of superangels 😇 #angelinvestment #contentmarketing #ai

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Excited to share that I'll be in #Brussels for the EthCC event! Another city, another event, but the anticipation remains the same. Looking forward to engaging discussions on unlocking #yield for institutional customers directly from #Custody. Can't wait to connect with industry leaders and fellow enthusiasts! DM me to arrange a F2F meeting while in town. #ETHCC #Brussels #Blockchain #Finance #CustodySolutions

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Travel makes you smarter, or so they say. For sure, if you digest these 60+ pages of European Banking Authority (EBA) Travel Rule Guidelines, you'd be very smart indeed. Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets was published on 9 June 2023. It recasts Regulation (EU) 2015/847 and extends its scope to the transfer of certain crypto-assets. Its main objective is to make the abuse of funds and certain crypto-asset transfers for terrorist financing and other financial crime purposes more difficult, and to enable relevant authorities to fully trace such transfers where this is necessary to prevent, detect or investigate money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF). Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 does not set out in detail what payment service providers (PSPs), intermediary PSPs (IPSPs), crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), and intermediary CASPs (ICASPs) should do in order to comply with it. Instead, it mandates the European Banking Authority (EBA) to issue guidelines to PSPs, IPSPs, CASPs, and ICASPs on the steps they should take to detect missing or incomplete information that accompanies a transfer of funds or crypto-assets, and the procedures they should put in place to manage a transfer of funds or a transfer of crypto-assets lacking the required information. Competent authorities will refer to these Guidelines when assessing whether the procedures PSPs, IPSPs, CASPs and ICASPs have put in place to comply with Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, are adequate and effective. The Guidelines will be translated into the official EU languages and published on the EBA’s website. The deadline for competent authorities to report whether they comply with the Guidelines will be two months after the publication of the translations. The Guidelines will apply from 30 December 2024.

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Thanks, Mirela C. and The Paypers team for the opportunity to provide insights on modern crypto payments. In this interview, we discuss the innovative use of #stablecoins over fast and scalable networks (#layer2), addressing the challenges businesses face when integrating crypto #payments, and the importance of optimizing the user experience to prevent errors and educate users. You will find some data on network costs, blockchain processing scalability, data on customer preferences, and some interesting anecdotal experiences processing thousands of transactions per month on Cryptorefills. We talk about #AML measures and the unique advantages of blockchain's transparency, and I provide some practical advice for businesses looking to integrate crypto payments or aiming to reach crypto customers.

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First day of ETHMilan is done ✅ Happy to see the Italian crypto scene growing! Key takeaways: Internet Computer Protocol Italia and Berachain are everywhere, the community is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen, especially for 🐻 DeFi and CEXs are the major focus of Italian community Utility tokens, memecoins and RWAs are NOT here at all…. Feels like Italy is stuck in 2021 cycle, but actively trying to push towards bullish sentimen Diversity here is non existent. Normally I see ~10% of females, here it’s ~1% Lots of great developers and PMs, working in web2 and doing hackathons in web3

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With several major FinTechs such as Stripe, Coinbase, Meta Facebook , Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, Square, SumUp (and many more) holding EMI licences from there, Ireland is one of the largest (and most mature) FinTech hubs in the EU☘️ This makes the licensing and supervision⚖️📜 of firms operating in the PI and EMI sectors an important and growing part of the Central Bank of Ireland's (CBI) mandate 🏦. Last week, the Central Bank of Ireland published its updated approach to the authorisation of Payment Institutions (PIs) (including the registration of Account Information Service Providers (AISPs)) and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) in Ireland, together with a document setting out its expectations for the authorisation/registration of these regulated fintech entities 📰📢📣. This updated approach consists of 3 main stages (previously VS 5), as follows Stage 1 - Exploratory Stage: designed to assist applicant firms and facilitate constructive engagement. Stage 2 - Assessment stage: During this stage, the Central Bank conducts its formal assessment of the application. This is the point at which the Central Bank's standard 90 working day clock for licensing services starts to run. The Central Bank may also make a request:   Stage 3 - Authorisation/Registration Decision: This is the stage at which the final decision on authorisation/registration is taken. The applicant company will receive a letter granting authorisation/registration or a letter of refusal. One of the CBI's aims was to clarify aspects of the process for applicant firms and industry bodies, and I personally think they've done a great job in terms of clarity and transparency🎯 If you want to have a look at the updated approach and dig deeper, the link is in the comments section 💸😉 AMLYZE

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#VentureCapital Update: Italy's Tech Ecosystem Shows Quality Growth Beyond the Numbers 📈 As we conclude Q1 2024, Italy stands as a top-10 ranked European tech ecosystem, marking its continued rise as a leader in European tech. It's crucial to dive deeper than just the surface numbers. This quarter has not only seen two megarounds and the birth of new unicorns but also showcased a significant evolution in the quality of VC investments. The narrative of real progress begins with the enhancement in "deployment quality," a key metric demonstrating the increasing maturity of our ecosystem. Persistent efforts from CDP Venture Capital SGR and many pivotal players in the Italian landscape have led to more consistent Series B and C funding rounds over the years. Notably, this consistency is not just in frequency but also in scale, with rounds more regularly exceeding €100M. Sectors vital for our competitive edge — Enterprise Software, Health, and Robotics — are the three most funded, serving as key drivers of our competitiveness. This evolution towards higher-quality, later-stage funding rounds sends a powerful message to international investors: our market is maturing, capable of sustaining significant investments and driving substantial growth. Such a robust environment is precisely what attracts global attention and capital, boosting our international competitiveness. As we continue to invest and nurture our ecosystem, let’s celebrate not just the volume of funds but also the strategic nature and quality of these investments. Italy’s venture ecosystem is indeed "sailing into deeper waters" (Duc in Altum), supported by the steadfast quality of our investments that promise a thriving future. Let's keep pushing the boundaries and setting new benchmarks for a vibrant, innovative tech ecosystem. I welcome your insights on enhancing our ecosystem or trends you foresee shaping our future. What strategic moves should we consider to maintain this growth trajectory? Thanks Yoram Wijngaarde and Italian Tech Alliance, Growth Capital for your valuable data. For the ones interested in the reports, here are the links: Deal Room report https://lnkd.in/gybKQfgU 🇮🇹 📈 Italian Tech Alliance (English version): https://lnkd.in/dRRqadhB 🇮🇹 📈 Italian Tech Alliance (Italian version): https://lnkd.in/dJnRfksh 🇬🇧 📈 #TechInvestment #ItalianInnovation #StartupItalia #DucInAltum

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Just finished reading the latest Fintech+ newsletter from Il Sole 24 Ore on fintech scenarios, authored by the brilliant Pierangelo Soldavini, and it’s packed with valuable insights! The analysis on sustainable growth, driven by generative AI and embedded finance, truly stands out. Sweden is leading the charge in Europe, with Italy gearing up for a new phase of market integration and innovation. The global fintech market is proving to be a cradle of innovation and growth, despite a slowdown in funding and valuations. As the report from Boston Consulting Group highlights, "With game-changing technologies like generative AI and billions of unbanked or underbanked people worldwide, fintech has enormous development potential." BCG projects that the fintech industry could reach $1.5 trillion in business volume by 2030, growing fivefold from current levels. However, it's essential to *balance optimism with prudence*. The new report, "Global Fintech 2024: Prudence, Profits, and Growth," emphasizes the need for sustainable and profitable growth. McKinsey's report from last autumn also underscores a paradigm shift towards more sustainable growth, focusing on profit and technological revolution as key value drivers. Despite reduced funds and valuations, fintech revenue has grown by 14% over the past two years, rising to 21% when excluding crypto and China-exposed fintechs. McKinsey estimates that fintech revenue growth could outpace traditional banking by nearly three times in the coming years, with a projected 15% growth between 2022 and 2028 compared to banking's 6%. I’m honored to be quoted in the newsletter, where I emphasized that "It is thanks to these innovative tech companies that the way financial services are delivered is being redefined." I highly recommend subscribing to this newsletter – always updated, incredibly useful, and a great resource for staying ahead in fintech. And yes, I often translate for my English-speaking friends! Hope the folks at Sole24Ore don't mind... #Fintech #Innovation #SustainableGrowth #GenerativeAI #EmbeddedFinance #MarketInsights #FintechNews #BCG #McKinsey #FinancialServices #Leadership #FintechTransformation

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Just finished reading the latest FIntech+ newsletter from Il Sole 24 Ore on fintech scenarios, authored by the brilliant Pierangelo Soldavini, and it’s packed with valuable insights! The analysis on sustainable growth, driven by generative AI and embedded finance, truly stands out. Sweden is leading the charge in Europe, with Italy gearing up for a new phase of market integration and innovation. The global fintech market is proving to be a cradle of innovation and growth, despite a slowdown in funding and valuations. As the report from Boston Consulting Group highlights, "With game-changing technologies like generative AI and billions of unbanked or underbanked people worldwide, fintech has enormous development potential." BCG projects that the fintech industry could reach $1.5 trillion in business volume by 2030, growing fivefold from current levels. However, it's essential to balance optimism with prudence. The new report, "Global Fintech 2024: Prudence, Profits, and Growth," emphasizes the need for sustainable and profitable growth. McKinsey's report from last autumn also underscores a paradigm shift towards more sustainable growth, focusing on profit and technological revolution as key value drivers. Despite reduced funds and valuations, fintech revenue has grown by 14% over the past two years, rising to 21% when excluding crypto and China-exposed fintechs. McKinsey estimates that fintech revenue growth could outpace traditional banking by nearly three times in the coming years, with a projected 15% growth between 2022 and 2028 compared to banking's 6%. I’m honored to be quoted in the newsletter, where I emphasized that "It is thanks to these innovative tech companies that the way financial services are delivered is being redefined." I highly recommend subscribing to this newsletter – always updated, incredibly useful, and a great resource for staying ahead in fintech. And yes, I often translate for my English-speaking friends! Hope the folks at Sole24Ore don't mind... #Fintech #Innovation #SustainableGrowth #GenerativeAI #EmbeddedFinance #MarketInsights #FintechNews #BCG #McKinsey #FinancialServices #Leadership #FintechTransformation

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Italian deep tech startup Cubbit closes a $12.5 million funding round #Cubbit, Italian #startup specializing in geo-distributed cloud storage solutions, has successfully raised $12.5 million in funding. This innovative company, founded by Stefano Onofri, is revolutionizing the cloud storage market with its unique approach that allows organizations to create their own geo-distributed S3 cloud storage, seamlessly integrating into any infrastructure and policy framework, from hybrid cloud to the edge. As data production skyrockets, with projections of over 180 billion terabytes by 2025 and 75% of this data processed at the edge, the complexity of data orchestration, cyber-attacks, sovereignty risks, and costs are escalating. Cubbit addresses these challenges by offering a hyper-resilient, flexible, and cost-efficient cloud storage service. Their proprietary DS3 Composer platform combines deep tech data fragmentation and geo-distribution technology to protect sensitive data while ensuring robust data resiliency SLAs, using significantly less disk space and IT resources than traditional cloud storage. The recent funding round was co-led by LocalGlobe and ETF Partners, with participation from Verve Ventures, 2100 Ventures, Hydra, Growth Engine, Eurenergia, Moonstone Venture Capital, Azimut Libera Impresa SGR, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Primo Ventures. Notable individual investors include Fabio Fregi, former Italy Country Manager of Google Cloud, and Joe Zadeh, former VP of Product at Airbnb. Stefano Onofri, Co-CEO and Co-founder of Cubbit, highlighted the significance of this investment from top-tier international VCs as a major endorsement of their geo-distributed technology. He mentioned that Cubbit has achieved substantial growth and secured key partnerships with global players such as Leonardo, HPE, and Equinix. This new funding will be pivotal in taking their expansion to the next level, particularly focusing on the DACH and French-speaking regions and the United Kingdom. Patrick Sheehan, Managing Partner and Founder of ETF Partners, emphasized the environmental challenge posed by the tech revolution, noting that Cubbit's technology addresses the steep environmental cost of increasing data center energy use and carbon footprint. Ferdinando Sigona, Partner of LocalGlobe, pointed out the exponential growth in data generation and the increasing need for AI sovereignty, stressing that Cubbit's cloud storage software elegantly meets these needs. The article on Tech.eu in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/d4h8zqKA  - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

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A sneak peek at the presentation given at Lugano's Plan ₿, “Bitcoin's keyless future” What we are doing at Elysium Lab, from a technology perspective, can really change the way people approach this technology Reducing the complexity of key management while increasing security and tailoring it to the user's needs The official video will be released soon, in the meantime know that for my point of view, the future of Bitcoin is Keyless 🔑🚫

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We’re expecting a lot of activity in the LSI Europe ‘24 mobile app leading up to the event once it is officially open. When sending meeting requests and reaching out to investors, consider this advice from Marta G. Zanchi, Founder and Managing Partner of Nina Capital: Block off time pre-event to spend qualifying these investors. You come away with better outcomes when you spend time researching because you: 1. Create stronger pitches that are tied to their current portfolio, areas of expertise, and investment thesis 2. Figure out who to approach during dinners, drinks, and sessions at the event 3. Don’t waste time with investors that will never invest in your company Here are some actionable takeaways to implement for LSI Europe ‘24: - Use the event to qualify investors for after the event, and future events - Do the work upfront to understand which funds have the potential to be the best match - Be clear about your company (mission, stage, etc.) to ensure you’re on the same page with investors when requesting to meet - Use meetings with investors to start a conversation and build a relationship with them post-event - Listen to VCs that are sharing about their funds and investments during sessions (panels and networking receptions especially) You can hear the other helpful tips Marta and Marc Subirats gave during their LSI Europe ‘23 Fireside Chat: “A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs: Building Nina Capital & Investing from First Principles in Healthcare” (available on our website and YouTube channel).

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The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) transforms the EU payment ecosystem and imposes many must-dos on PSPs: 📌Mandated instant euro payments. All PSPs must facilitate payments within seconds, 24/7, 365 days a year.  📌Fee limits. Charges for instant payments cannot exceed those for standard credit transfers. 📌IBAN and name verification. PSPs must ensure that the recipient's IBAN and name match to prevent errors or fraud. 📌Screening against EU sanctions. Payment providers must check their clients against EU sanctions lists at least once a day. 📌Direct access to payment systems. Payment and e-money institutions (PIEMIs) can directly access payment systems, which eliminates the need for bank sponsorship. The IPR will greatly assist the EU in adopting instant payments. I am confident that in the coming years we will see the European Union quickly catching up with India, Brazil, and China, which are currently leaders in instant payments. Despite that, significant efforts will be required from payment providers to adapt to new IPR requirements. And timelines are quite strict. PSPs should be ready to receive instant credit transfers by Jan, 9, 2025, and send instant credit transfers in euro by Oct, 9, 2025🔥 With a reliable fintech provider, however, the adaptation period will proceed smoothly. So, if you are looking for one, don't hesitate to contact me directly✉️

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Want to know how Luca Ferrari built Bending Spoons into a $2B company?↓ Here are 8 key insights from the CEO of one of Europe's fastest-growing tech companies: ✱ Embrace humility. Overconfidence leads to costly mistakes. ✱ Improve existing products instead of creating from scratch. ✱ Bootstrap for control and long-term growth. ✱ Allocate resources to the most valuable opportunities. ✱ Focus on pricing assets correctly. ✱ Learn from failures and adapt your strategy. ✱ Prioritize talent density and motivation in your team. ✱ Balance remote work with in-person collaboration. Ferrari's approach? Be hands-on, move fast, and always consider the long-term view. Success in tech isn't just about innovation. It's about execution, learning from failures, and building the right team. What's your take on Ferrari's strategy? Share your thoughts below. ALWAYS MAKE PROGRESS ⤴ ps: watch the full interview, link in the first comment. #bendingspoons #strategy

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Those who are on my investor update list are probably aware that I'm very cautious about clouds and SaaS in general. There's a reason for that. Once you do your homework and calculate the costs, usually you find out that you are paying too much compared to self-hosting and free open-source solutions. Just think about it... One instance of a managed Postgres database in the cloud would cost you at least $15/month for very low specs (1Gb RAM, 1 vCPU, 10Gb SSD). That's probably not enough for more or less real production usage. Once you go for real-life usage your monthly bill would go above $100. Of course, you get plenty of benefits by having your database in the cloud (easy deployment, backups, and snapshots, painless scalability). But if you are a startup, do you really need all these benefits? How soon would you hit the bottleneck with your database to require that effortless scalability? Probably not very soon. We might even assume that by having your database in the cloud you wouldn't even reach that level, because you probably go bankrupt due to that $100+ (and growing) monthly bill. If you go for the most powerful VPS, you can get much better specs for a lower price. Yes, you will have to deploy and maintain the database yourself, but by doing that you will save a lot of money. And you might even find out that you don't need to go for the cloud at all anytime soon. Do you know that you can run a website, which is in the global 1000 top websites, from a single server? Here's the good reading on that in a bit more detail: https://lnkd.in/gsgiQysz

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We’re gonna bring companies and investors in the future of capital markets and on July 3th we will talk about it UCapital Fintech Group UCapital Social Network #nasdaq #capitalmarkets #startups #fintech #capitalraising #ipo #london #milan #newyork

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🚨 JUST IN: Circle announced first EU stablecoin licence under MiCA. TETHER continuing head-in-the-sands strategy? Circle has become the first global #stablecoin issuer to secure an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence under the EU’s new Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework. The announcement comes right before the world's largest stablecoin conference "Stablesummit" in Brussels on July 6-7, 2024 (www.stablesummit.xyz) The EU MiCA licence allows Circle to officially offer both their #USDC and #EURC crypto stablecoins to European customers with effect from July 1st, 2024. Tether’s USDT in the sidelines: Largest competitor Tether seems to follow a head-in-the-sands strategy. Tether CEO Paolo A. Ardoino twittered, that they do not plan to apply for a EU-licence anytime soon. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is against MiCA’s expectation of 60% of backing in bank cash, citing “bank failure risk.” His explanation: “Stablecoins should be able to keep 100% of reserves in treasury bills, rather than exposing themselves to bank failures by keeping big chunks of reserves in uninsured cash deposits. In case of bank failure, securities return to the legitimate owner,” he wrote. Well, he has a point. However, whether this is a clever market strategy agaist Circle or blunt arrogance has to be seen. It comes at no surprise that Tether is rated D - second lowest - in the latest stablecoin rating of independent stable coin rating agency bluechip.org Anything to add about this subject? [𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁] Value to others? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] #ReturnOnSociety 🦋 Nice piece, Robby. More! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ]

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Great growth from Revolut and record profit Some numbers on this succes story: - profit 2023: $545 million ($428 after tax) - revenue 2023: $2.2 bn - paid subscriptions: 41% of customers - third profitable year in a row - new customers 2023: 12 million - total customers 2023: 38 million - total customers 2024 ytd: 45 million - valuation early 2024: $25.7 bn - $500 m share sale planned with aimed valuation of: $40 bn With these number, at an almost 25% margin, Revolut leaves many payment companies behind in profitability. Margins are under pressure for some time and in some markets financial institutions complain about the possibilities to make money with payments... the clear proof of success is shown here by Revolut. Revolut continue to work on realizing its banking license to boost further growth. Link to source article in comments #payments #growth

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