Italy Smart Food srl

ITALY SMART FOOD s.r.l. is an innovative startup born from the vision of Dario Nadimi (entrepreneur and patent holder in Europe and the United States, who has worked for many years in the health product sector) to satisfy the current need of a large part of the population to enjoy the pleasure of traditional Italian food while offering many health benefits, including reducing salt consumption.

The initial investment was supported by Invitalia SpA, the national agency for investment attraction and business development, controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), which exercises its rights in agreement with the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) – CUP C51B21007580008.
ITALY SMART FOOD has revived the ancient Tuscan tradition of using olive leaves to produce, with innovative technologies, Olivello Toscano®, a brand of unique, world-renowned Made in Italy specialties with exquisite taste and health benefits.

For its production, the company uses a circular bio-economy system, utilizing the residual leaves from the olive milling process, rich in valuable polyphenols, which are collected free of charge from the mills in the Bolgheri area, on the Etruscan coast.
The company took its first steps in 2021 at the Navacchio Technology Park (PI), and today it has established a production facility on the Tuscan coast, in Livorno, aiming to bring its exclusive brand of natural olive leaf-based foods to the European, Canadian, and U.S. markets by 2025, through patents obtained by the founder and exclusively licensed to the company.
Olivello Toscano® Spray is a unique specialty, made from organic olive leaves, juniper berries, and spices, aged in barrels that previously held prestigious wines. A small amount enhances the flavor of any dish; used instead of table salt, it provides health benefits due to the polyphenols from the olive and anthocyanins from the vine, which help reduce hypertension, as well as the absence of fats. It allows for a reduction in salt consumption by more than 85%, and its spices enhance the flavor, further reducing the need to add salt.

Furthermore, when sprayed on the rim of a glass, it is an ingredient for preparing aperitifs based on Campari and Aperol, or non-alcoholic cocktails.
Using the same innovative technologies, Italy Smart Food extracts new gourmet seasonings from olive leaves, true excellence of Made in Italy, such as olive balsamic vinegar, barbecue sauce, infusions in extra virgin olive oil, and pasta.

The products have a competitive advantage due to their high technological value and the use of new, eco-sustainable technologies, with completely cold processes and no chemical additives. The cold processing preserves the biological components and aromatic compounds of the plant parts, resulting in superior quality. The production cycle ends without creating waste or pollutants but only biological fertilizers for gardens and vegetable patches, in a modern circular economy system. The packaging also follows eco-sustainability principles, favoring glass containers.

The idea of producing Olivello Toscano came from the founder’s intuition, based on his experience in the field of olive leaf extract application and its health benefits, to develop new foods containing this healthy ingredient.
The foundation of the idea was the realization that we consume too much salt, more than double the amount recommended by the WHO (5 grams per day), putting our health at risk, because we find it difficult to give up the taste of good food. Hypertension is, in fact, one of the most widespread conditions.
Nevertheless, we remain among the longest-living populations in the world thanks to the Mediterranean Diet and its content of extra virgin olive oil, which contains polyphenols. These substances, which help maintain cardiovascular health, are present in olive oil in much smaller quantities compared to the leaves, and much of these native active compounds are lost during its production due to heat exposure.
By studying Tuscan mills, it was observed that the leaves— the part richest in valuable polyphenols— were discarded during milling and treated as waste. Therefore, it was thought to develop a new technology, without the use of heat like traditional methods, to reuse the discarded leaves from mills as free raw material, recovering ancient Tuscan recipes to produce new natural seasonings and salt substitutes for the table.
The exceptional savoriness of Olivello Toscano allows for seasoning food while completely replacing table salt, benefiting everyone’s health, without sacrificing the taste of food, which is an integral part of Italian culture and the Italian way of life.
This initial intuition became a project when a first prototype of Olivello Toscano® Spray was presented at Gulf Food Dubai, the world’s largest specialized food fair, and was selected by a panel of experts as a finalist in the selection of the most innovative natural food of the event.

The sole director and founding partner of ITALY SMART FOOD s.r.l., Dario Nadimi Zahedani, holds industrial invention patents.
The invention refers to the production of seasonings and supplements, in spray form, derived from olive leaves, and their uses for the prevention of diseases, including cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, stroke, heart attack) and osteoporosis, which are related to excessive salt consumption.
The Italian patent was granted on March 5, 2019, the U.S. patent on October 20, 2020, and the European patent was filed on August 1, 2017, at the European Patent Office (EPO).

On May 20, 2021, an Exclusive License Agreement for the patent rights was registered with the Revenue Agency, between the patent holder and ITALY SMART FOOD Srl. The exclusive license was also recorded with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy).

The industrial plan of ITALY SMART FOOD s.r.l. focuses on the production of the Olivello Toscano brand, which includes a range of 30 premium foods derived from Tuscan olive leaves using innovative technology. The brand will be marketed in Italy, but primarily abroad, with expressions of interest already received for importation.
The company has already installed and tested the automated production line, formulated the recipes, developed the packaging, and prepared the first product catalog, having invested around €500,000 (partly assisted by Invitalia S.p.A.’s Smart & Start measure).

Agreements have been initiated with the Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad for the commercial launch in Canada and Singapore, as well as partners for distribution in Asian countries. Encouraging contacts have also been made in the USA. Recently, a Belgian commercial partner expressed interest in purchasing Olivello Toscano products to introduce them at Delhaize, the Dutch-Belgian multinational active in retail and the fourth-largest supermarket group in Europe, fifth in the United States.
The Olivello Toscano® brand will launch in 2025, featuring three premium sub-lines (Gran Riserva / Ricette di Famiglia / Home Collection), aged in former Bolgheri wine barrels or processed with special enrichment techniques, with an initial expansion to 20 products, later increasing to 30. Alongside Olivello Toscano Spray (Classic, Rustic, Lemon, Mediterranean, and Truffle), there will be Balsamic Condiment with Vinegar, Fat-Free Salad Dressing, Barbecue Sauce, Infusions in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, as well as a Mixology line for cocktails, olive pasta, and branded kitchen accessories made by artisans in Tuscany using olive wood.
The company operates a business model focused on social innovation and offers products aimed at addressing the needs of people because excessive salt consumption leads to increased blood pressure and the onset of cardiovascular diseases, debilitating illnesses with extremely high social costs. In the EU alone, cardiovascular diseases (CV) are one of the leading causes of death (40% in men, 50% in women), and in Italy, the direct costs to the National Health Service amount to €16 billion/year, while the indirect costs, due to lost productivity, are €5 billion/year.

The production is based on a Circular Economy system, following the “waste is food” concepts by Braungart and McDonough, creating value from waste biological materials (olive leaves given to mills), through use in other productions and returning value to farmers as organic fertilizer from production waste. It is eco-sustainable because it uses a new cold technology that requires less energy than traditional hot systems and does not release solvents into the environment. It also uses eco-sustainable packaging, prioritizing glass over plastic.

The prospective financial statements show high margins, attractive from the launch and increasingly growing with the rise in turnover, due to the substantial lack of cost for acquiring the main raw material (olive leaves), which is abundant and provided free of charge by mills to the company during the milling season. Thanks to the development of a special preservation process, the raw material retrieved from the mills remains available year-round at the Livorno production facility.

We all want to maintain our health, prevent hypertension, heart attacks, and strokes, but at the table, we find it difficult to achieve this goal; we consume too much salt every day, on average more than double the limit recommended by the Ministry of Health (5g per day), and we do not easily give up the pleasure of good food, one of life’s joys and part of our culture.

Olivello Toscano helps reduce this problem in a natural and practical way with its spray dispenser. Just a few sprays completely replace table salt, with more salty flavor (enhanced by the olive leaf) and 85% less sodium. To season a dish, only a few sprays are needed, while to exceed the daily limit of 5 grams of salt, over 170 sprays of Olivello Toscano would be necessary!

The range of Olivello Toscano products offers unique Made-in-Italy specialties based on olive leaves, such as olive balsamic vinegar with low acidity, pasta, infusions, and fat-free olive condiments. For people used to seasoning with salt, reducing its quantity can lead to dissatisfaction due to the bland taste of dishes. Olivello Toscano significantly reduces added salt while enhancing the flavor of dishes, thanks to its natural ingredients and aging in oak barrels, providing satisfaction while eating.

Olivello Toscano® is a brand that already communicates a strong identity and makes its products easily recognizable, but it aspires to become much more—a brand capable of conveying values and emotions, focusing on tradition and territory, and drawing inspiration from the best examples of success in Made-in-Italy products.

Olivello Toscano products represent an improved offer compared to current natural seasonings used to replace or reduce salt consumption, such as Asian products like soy sauce, gomasio (toasted sesame), umeboshi (Japanese salted plums), or German herb-and-salt blends. Olivello Toscano® also has the added health benefits of olive, practical and hygienic usage, and a taste that pairs perfectly with traditional Italian dishes.

On a beautiful summer evening, at a seaside restaurant with a glass of white wine, would you season a plate of spaghetti with clams with soy sauce or salted plums?

Consumers, therefore, have many reasons to choose Olivello Toscano products, including:

• Reducing daily salt and fat intake to stay healthy without giving up the taste of Italian cuisine.
• 100% Italian products with excellent taste.
• Natural ingredients, produced eco-sustainably, and with recyclable packaging.
• A wide selection (30 different specialties will be launched in 2025).
• Excellent value for money, as a small amount is enough to season.
• Naturally contains olive polyphenols, antioxidants that have beneficial effects on blood pressure and are useful in preventing cardiovascular diseases.
• Ecological spray, without gas, more practical and fun to use outside the home, to regulate the taste of food directly on the plate, based on each diner’s needs.
• Blends better than salt with oil and vinegar in salads because it is distributed evenly in micro-droplets.
• More hygienic than powdered seasonings or pinched salt, as it eliminates finger contact.
• Adds flavor to dishes, with a wide range of flavors to pair with various Italian and international dishes.
• Suitable for vegetarian, vegan, Halal, and Kosher diets.

Currently, the share capital of Italy Smart Food Srl is held by 52 partners, with shares in category ‘A’ (38 partners) and category ‘B’ (14 partners).
In terms of value, the category ‘A’ shares, which carry voting rights, represent 99.01% of the share capital, while the category ‘B’ shares represent the remaining 0.99%.
The company was founded by Dario Nadimi together with Engineer Kerstin Jahnke, who were later joined by Dr. Francesco Tofani (a general practitioner in Livorno who was the first to invest in Italy Smart Food Srl, convinced of the health benefits of the products and, more broadly, of the soundness of the industrial project).

During the first capital increase (carried out publicly on this portal between late 2021 and early 2022), 37 new partners joined, contributing €200,000.
In the second capital increase (conducted privately between late 2023 and early 2024), 7 of the previous partners contributed €69,000, and 12 new partners subscribed to a total of €147,000 (bringing the total to €216,000), resulting in the current shareholder structure.

The company recently completed the installation (August 2024) of the first automated production line, funded under the Smart & Start program of Invitalia. Thanks to this, it will soon launch the Olivello Toscano® line on the market. In the meantime, new applications of the technology have been developed and tested, resulting in over 30 new specialties based on olive leaf, which will expand and diversify the product range compared to the initial plan.

This, on one hand, makes the product offering more interesting and appealing, especially in light of significant foreign orders expected. On the other hand, it requires the enhancement of the company’s production capacity within a shorter timeframe than initially planned so that the largest number of references are readily available for sale without delays or additional costs due to constant machine format changes.
Moreover, to maximize the effectiveness of the already launched international market penetration program, it is necessary to add adequate own resources to the FESR funds obtained for internationalization, in order to cover all possible commercial initiatives. Furthermore, while the company remains highly focused on export, the entry into domestic large-scale distribution (GDO) channels and e-commerce cannot be overlooked.
The financial resources, as determined by the outcome of the current capital increase, will therefore be allocated to the acquisition of a second production line to support the existing one, as well as to investments in marketing. However, if the amount raised is below the €250K offered for subscription, depending on the actual funds available, complementary financing will be activated and/or leasing contracts signed and/or only selected additional machinery will be purchased and/or promotional efforts will be downsized.

The participation share offered to investors in exchange for the required financial contribution (€250K) is 9.38%, corresponding to a pre-money valuation of the company of €2,416,000.
New shareholders will be allocated ordinary shares, which have the same financial and administrative rights as those of the founders, in case of an investment equal to or greater than €5,000.

For investments below this threshold, category “B” shares will be allocated, which are freely transferable but do not grant voting rights or the right to intervene in the shareholders’ meeting, nor rights to information and consultation if a supervisory body is appointed.

Anyone is allowed to become a shareholder with an investment starting from €2,000.
The tool on the homepage of the offer box allows investors to simulate the share they can obtain based on the amount they wish to invest.

Based on economic forecasts and the respective cash flows, it is possible to imagine that within three years, the company will achieve profits and financial resources suitable for providing a flow of dividends that will repay investors for their contribution, which could lead to appropriate returns in terms of remuneration for the invested capital.
It is also reasonable to assume that, once operational maturity is reached and there is an adequate presence in the international market, interest may arise for the acquisition (total or partial) of ITALY SMART FOOD Srl by a larger Italian or foreign industrial group looking to expand or complete their product range.
Finally, new shareholders of ITALY SMART FOOD S.r.l. will have the opportunity to enjoy significant tax incentives.
In fact, regardless of the amount subscribed, whether acquiring “A” or “B” shares, Article 29 of DL 179/2012 (so-called “Growth Decree Bis”, converted with Law 221/2012) grants, under certain conditions (such as holding the investment continuously for three years from purchase), a tax deduction of 30% of the amount invested, in the form of IRPEF (personal income tax) deduction or IRES (corporate income tax) deduction for individuals investing in the capital of innovative startups (so-called facilitated investment).
Article 38 of DL 34/2020 (the so-called Relaunch Decree), by adding Article 29-bis to DL 179/2012, enhanced these tax benefits only for individuals, raising them to 50% of the invested sum, up to a maximum of €100,000 per tax year. This increased benefit, granted under the de minimis regime, requires the investor to obtain a PEC (Certified Email, if not already in possession) to be communicated to the company. The startup will then submit a specific request to verify if the state aid threshold has been exceeded, after which the investor will receive authorization (or not) for the deduction.

Shareholders could also benefit from exemptions from income taxes on capital gains derived from the sale of shares in innovative startups as per Article 14 of the Decree Law 25/05/2021, No. 73, although Article 4, paragraph 1, of Law 28/10/2024, No. 162 clarified that this exemption is only available to those who have benefited from the 30% deduction (Article 29 DL 179/2012) and not those who benefited from the 50% deduction (Article 29-bis DL 179/2012).

Given the complexity and variability of this matter, it is recommended to carefully consult the implementing provisions of the reference legislation (DM MEF-MISE 7.5.2019 and 28.12.2020) and, in any case, to seek advice from a tax consultant for an accurate assessment of the applicability of the aforementioned benefits to their specific case.