Italian insurtech Mama Insurance has raised an early-stage round led by Fastweb+Vodafone, with backing from Founders Factory and Vento. The round lifts its total funding above €2 million. The capital combines equity from the three investors, non-dilutive public funding from national and regional programmes, and bank debt. It also extends Mama Insurance's work with Fastweb+Vodafone on research, AI and digital customer experiences. The startup is building an AI-native platform to simplify how consumers buy insurance, starting with home cover. More than half of Italian households are estimated to have none. Users can get quotes and buy modular policies online in under two minutes, with underwriting from Chubb. The funds will support expansion into personal insurance and products for small and medium-sized businesses. "Home insurance is where we start, but our ambition is to build the platform that protects Italians across every dimension of life and business," said founder and chief executive officer Leonida Fini Zarri.

Fieldstone Bio, a synthetic biology company based in Woburn, Massachusetts, has been selected for the Mining Tech Accelerator run by Founders Factory with Rio Tinto. It is one of five companies in the four-month program and receives its first backing from the mining industry. Participants receive investment and operational support. They work with Rio Tinto's technical experts and use its facilities in Western Australia to adapt their technology for mines. Fieldstone's platform combines synthetic biology, hyperspectral imaging, and data analysis to measure elements in geological samples. It aims to give drill teams results in days rather than the one to two months labs can take. In June, the US Department of Energy awarded $2 million to Fieldstone, TerraCore, and MIT to develop rapid characterisation of critical minerals on drill cores.