MILAN — Stamp, an Italy-based start-up facilitating tax-free shopping through a digital platform and app, has completed a seed investment round of 1.4 million euros from investors including the Chinese leading venture capital firm ZhenFund — which also has stakes in the Little Red Book social media and e-commerce — and Btov Partners, an early backer of the SumUp and Raisin companies.
Launched in 2018, Stamp has received a total amount of 1.7 million euros so far, including the pre-seed round investment led by Dubai-based IC Global Partners.
“We’ve been good in choosing our first investors. They are the ones who brought in the new funds,” said the company’s cofounder and chief executive officer Michele Fontolan. As reported, Fontolan worked for Uber in Dubai before coming up with the tax-free app idea with his friend Wagner Eleuteri, who manages the American business of the namesake high-end vintage jewelry retail chain. They were soon joined by the other two cofounders, Stefano Fontolan and Federico Degrandis, who previously worked at Airbnb and Suitsupply, respectively.
The platform streamlines traditional tax-free shopping procedures enabling foreign customers to save time usually dedicated to fill paperwork — as all their data are digitally saved through the app — and to
Tax-Free Shopping Start-up Gets 1.4 Million Euros Seed Round Investment
