Startup Funding (Italy): Rome-based hospitality marketing startup Bestie Bite raised €1.5m via a SAFE to accelerate its US expansion, bringing total funding to €2.2m after an earlier €700k round; the app uses short user videos plus AI to help diners and hotels/venues get discovered. SME Growth (Italy): Trentino edtech Sirius Game closed a €1.3m round led by CDP (with Trentino Invest, Ultra VC, 28Digital, Add Value) to scale its game-based learning platform, including a new primary-school product JOY with La Scuola. Business & Tech (Italy-Japan): In Rome, Meloni and Japan’s Takaichi pushed their “special strategic partnership” toward practical cooperation in space, defense, economic security, energy and supply-chain resilience ahead of the G7. Digital Markets (Italy): Ad-fraud and compliance firm Pixalate reported that in Q1 2026 Italy saw a +12pp rise in sellers primarily acting as arbitrageurs in web inventory, highlighting ongoing trust and transparency issues for advertisers and publishers. Energy/AI Infrastructure (Europe): CloudGrid Energy and Policloud signed a framework for 280 renewable-powered compute units across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, targeting 29,000 GPUs and 35 MW by end-2027.