New investment round for Finapp targeting France and the US

An EUR 8.64 million Series A investment round to accelerate the path of internationalisation and industrial growth. This has been concluded by the innovative start-up Finapp, born as a spin-off of the Department of Applied Nuclear Physics of the University of Padua and from 2022 in acceleration in the Village by Crédit Agricole Triveneto.

Founded in 2019, Finapp develops and manufactures patented probes based on CRNS (Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing) technology, which measure the amount of water in soil and snow by detecting neutrons generated by cosmic rays. Finapp technology enables real-time, large-scale measurements of soil moisture and water content in snow, and is applicable in precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, landslide, flood and fire prevention, and leak detection in water networks.

The round was led by Linfa, the first Italian agrifoodtech fund managed by Riello Investimenti SGR (for which Finapp is the fifth investment) with the follow-up, i.e. reinvestment, of existing partners: MITO Tech Transfer, a fund of MITO Technology, Crédit Agricole Italia and Tech4Planet, the national Technology Transfer Pole for Environmental Sustainability promoted by CDP Venture Capital.

Luca Stevanato

"We are extremely proud of the closing of this round," says Luca Stevanato, CEO and co-founder of Finapp, "which is not a point of arrival, but a starting point, and marks a new beginning for us: the opening of Finapp to the world. Partners will support our path of internationalisation and industrial growth, with the aim of bringing the revolution in water measurement not only to Italy and Europe, but globally. We are radically changing the way the planet measures a resource that is not only strategic, but increasingly critical for industry, agriculture and climate change mitigation'.

The funding will enable Finapp to open two new operations in France and the US, expand the team to support the growing demand for CRNS solutions in international markets, and strengthen production and research lines in Italy. CRNS technology, which is also supported by the FAO for the promotion of resilient and sustainable agricultural practices, enables the correlation of neutron counts generated by cosmic rays with the amount of water in the soil or snow.