What with all the excitement of Beta 6, we held off announcing yet another milestone for Passpack – funding!
I’m thrilled to announce that after many months of searching for the right partner – we have closed our first round of funding with Zernike Meta Ventures S.p.A (ZMV), representing Ingenium and members of Italian Angels for Growth.
Some of you have probably already recognized the signs. We have a new office, have started hiring [talented developers - speak up!] and … we’re preparing for a whirlwind of new features, sharing, a Passpack plugin, mobile optimization, an updated offline version and best of all… our commercial version.
Starting Up in Italy
Passpack is one of many web companies which launch and get funded each year, but one of the select few which can say the same here in Italy. We were proud to be the only Italian product to be chosen as a 2008 Webware finalist.
We owe a lot to initiatives such as Partnership for Growth which has done miracles to spur on the local startup ecosystem; to the Italian Angels for Growth who’s members have rolled up their sleeves and dug into helping us build our business; and other business associations such as First Generation Network and BAIA. Cheers to all!
About Our Investors
In the midst of our website redesign, you’ll soon be able to get a clearer picture of our investors. Until then, this will give you the gist of what you need to know: Zernike Meta Ventures, a joint venture between META Group and Zernike Group, provides seed funding for knowledge-based start-ups in Italy through Ingenium. Italian Angels for Growth is a Milan based business angel association that streamlines the selection of high-potential start-ups for its members, fostering Italian economic development.
Hold Onto Your Seats!
With all of your help and support, we’ve come a long way. Now funding only confirms how much further we can go… And you all are coming with us!
14 Comments
Congratulations! Well done!
Marco
Thanks Marco :) Cheers!
Congrats! :)
Hi,
I didn’t know that Passpack is an Italian company, but today, I noticed the “Srl” in the copyright footer and since I’m an Italian I went in search for more infos and finally I’m here on the blog.
Being myself a software developer it is always nice to see italian software products on the international market since there are not too much of them.
Go on that way! I like the service and how it is made. I’ll see to write an extensive post on my blog, to contribute a bit ;)
Juri
Yay! So happy for you all! Now hold on to your hats and enjoy the roller coaster ride!
I’m very happy (and proud as I am Italian) for your funding. Being innovative can be a good point in Italy, too!
@Juri,
Thanks! Code Notebook looks interesting – always glad to see people opting for tags instead of folders. I dream of a tagged Operating System!
@Carsten @Deirdré & @Danilo
Thank you! Good to hear from all three of you – hope all is well!
@Tara
Thanks. I’ve written Code Notebook about 2 years ago and I’m currently planning to rewrite it as a more sophisticated application using Eclipse RCP (as far as my free time allows it). Lets see what comes out.
@Juri
Good luck with it – no chance you’ll build me that tagged OS then huh? ;)
Cheers!
Really good news :-) Congratulations
compliments!
if only they gave you one euro for every business plan adjustment!
Wonderful that you got funding, but it raises a question for me. Investors want a return on their investment. How do they get a return on Passpack, which is free? Obviously, through advertising.
So, I start using Passpack now, when it presumably has no advertising yet, then, after I’m hooked on using it, it gets advertising. But I hate advertising, so I’m stuck.
@David Spector
Hi – thanks for the congrats. Actually our business model is the Freemium model.
See this post: Passpack’s Profit Model.
Cheers!
Tara
Very good work!
Is a great idea.
Good luck