Note: This is a post I wrote on TechCrunch Europe a few days ago.
Online password management startup Passpack, recently announced it’s follow-on funding. The company raised €350,000 in June 2008 and now previous investor Zernike Meta Ventures is topping that with additional €74,000.
This new capital injection will enable the company to finish the development of their product and start to actively market it. There is a great blog post about this new round in wich they explain what the funds will be used for. +1 for transparency.
The Rome-based company is not looking for venture capital until it hits profitability. Apparently, the new round was determined by reaching a major milestone in development and user-base.
The founders, an italo-american couple: Tara Kelly and Francesco Sullo that I recently met with in the attempt to create a roman startup community, stated that their revenue from premium packages is growing at a 2 digit percentage each month.
While this is great news for the italian startup ecosystem, it still raises many questions and doubts. €74,000, really? Let’s analyze the situation: Passpack has a working and cheap product, revenue growing every month, a committed team raising it like a child, great international press coverage and recently launched a desktop version to take on its competitors.Even thought the company is not looking for VC money right now, I still think it deserves some faith from investors.
If Passpack raises this modest amount what can other italian seed-stage startups aim for?
