BionIT Labs closes a €5.5 million investment round with CDP Venture Capital Sgr, RIF Srl, Sefea Impact Sgr, SIMEST SpA, and Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical

Investment goal: to make the Adam’s Hand bionic prosthesis the premier product in the American prosthetic market and to expand BionIT Labs’ product range

Lecce, July 3, 2024 – BionIT Labs, a medtech company from Salento that develops multi-articulating hand prostheses, has closed a new €5.5 million investment round participated by the funds CDP Venture Capital Sgr, RIF Srl, Sefea Impact Sgr, SIMEST SpA (through the Venture Capital Fund), and Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical.

With these new resources, subscribed partly as a capital increase and partly through convertible financing, BionIT Labs’ capital raise reaches over €12 million since its constitution in 2018.

This new round aims to expand BionIT Labs’ activities in the U.S. market, which represents over 50% of the global prosthetics market, extend the prosthetic product offering to meet the needs of end-users worldwide, and grow the current team to support the necessary growth for establishing a global presence. 

“BionIT Labs has already demonstrated its ability to transform an idea into a product perfectly capable of responding to and adapting over time to the needs of the prosthetics market,” says Giovanni Zappatore, CEO and Founder of BionIT Labs. “The renewed trust of CDP Venture Capital and RIF, along with the entry of new investment funds, will enable us to invest in positioning ourselves in the market as one of the major players in this sector worldwide.”

The flagship project of the Lecce-based company is called Adam’s Hand, a fully-adaptive myoelectric hand prosthesis, combining ease of use, unrivaled robustness, and an artificial intelligence algorithm that enhances its seamless integration with the user. Intended for those who lose the upper limb due to traumatic events or born without it due to congenital conditions, its goal is to improve the quality of life for people with limb differences.

Adam’s Hand’s uniqueness in the international landscape lies in its high technological content, supported by the company’s intellectual property, which currently includes six families of internationally extended patents, and by its rapid market expansion: after entering the European market in March 2023 and subsequently the U.S. market in March 2024, Adam’s Hand is now available in 12 countries, is a CE-marked medical device, listed in the FDA database, and has recently obtained PDAC approval, making reimbursement through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) available in the United States.

BionIT Labs stands out as a national center of excellence in the field of bionic engineering, thanks also to the fruitful work of over 30 employees and partners specialized in engineering and biomedical fields. Professionals who daily employ their skills to tangibly improve society, sharing the same corporate mission and vision: making the world a more equitable and accessible place for all, “turning disabilities into new possibilities”. The company also collaborates with numerous universities and research institutes at the national and international level, attracting talent and coordinating an ever-increasing pace of development and innovation.

Along with the investors already shareholders of BionIT Labs, CDP Venture Capital Sgr through the Fund “Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud”, and Equiter through the Research and Innovation Fund “RIF Srl”, the round was also finalized by Sefea Impact Sgr through the “Si Impact” Fund, SIMEST SpA through the resources of the ‘Single Venture Capital Fund “FVC”’, managed by the CDP Group company in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical, supervised by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.

Simultaneously with the closing of the round, BionIT Labs is also strengthening its managerial structure with a new Board of Directors, composed of Matteo Aventaggiato (COO and co-founder), Ilaria De Filippo (CFO), Federico Lanciano, director designated by CDP Venture Capital, and Mauro Zan, director designated by Sefea Impact, RIF, and ENEA Tech e Biomedical, who will assist the CEO Giovanni Zappatore in the company’s direction.

For CDP Venture Capital, the operation was followed by Francesca Ottier, Head of Fondo Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud, Federico Lanciano, Partner, and Paola Deidda, Associate of the Fund. For the Research and Innovation Fund “RIF”, the operation was followed by the advisor Equiter SpA represented by Giuseppe Bruno and Maria Concetta Smarrelli. For SIMEST, the operation was followed by Vera Veri, Head of Equity Investments, and her Extraordinary Finance team led by Lorenzo Fidato. For Sefea Impact Sgr, the operation was followed by Mauro Zan and Valentina Piccin, while for Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical by Wanda Ternau and Giuseppe Corvino.

The company thanks the outgoing director Giuseppe Giannasio and the outgoing mayor Pierpaolo Pagliarini for their work. The company was assisted by lawyer Luca Spagna – Senior Manager at Ernst & Young – and his team from the preliminary phase. The group of investors was led by the internal legal team of CDP Venture Capital, Alessandro di Gioia and Debora Perciballi, with assistance from lawyer Andrea Piermartini Rosi, Partner at Alma LED, for legal due diligence and contract negotiation; Sefea Impact Sgr was also assisted, for the impact part, by lawyer Nicola Carù of RPLT.

SOURCE: Enea Tech Biomedical