What Bio Bank does

Bio Bank is an Italian cooperative (Bio Bank soc. coop.) founded in January 1993 in Forlì, Italy, by Rosa Maria Bertino and Achille Mingozzi, operating as a specialized database and digital publishing platform for Italy's organic sector. The company's core asset is a proprietary database cataloging over 12,000 organic activities across Italy — including 3,612 food companies, 433 cosmetics companies, 636 food e-commerce operators, 338 cosmetics e-commerce operators, 978 organic shops, 1,412 agritourism establishments, 1,367 direct-sales operations, 232 farmers' markets, 455 bio restaurants, and 279 organic perfumeries. Bio Bank delivers this dataset through the biobank.it web portal, which integrates searchable databases, interactive maps with 5,200+ geolocated activities, a product showcase, a blog, and an annual cycle of publications including the Rapporto Bio Bank (statistical panorama, now in its 18th edition, 100 pages in 2025), the Focus Bio Bank – Supermercati & Specializzati vertical report on retail channels, the Focus Bio Bank – Private Label Manufacturers English-language directory, and the Vetrina Bio Bank trend and product showcase. Distribution is supported by two email newsletters — Bio Bank News reaching 13,000+ organic operators and journalists, and Vetrina Bio Bank reaching 6,000+ retailers, restaurants, and brands — plus 2,500 printed Vetrina copies mailed annually and event presence at SANA Bologna.

The underlying technology is a web portal with an integrated relational database system, supplemented by digital publishing through Issuu and email delivery via Mailchimp. Bio Bank operates an exclusively advertising-supported business model: all content, databases, maps, reports, and publications are free and accessible without registration. Revenue derives solely from advertising that is clearly separated from editorial content, with multiple advertising formats diversified across media types. The company explicitly does not receive public funding, which it positions as a guarantee of editorial independence — a meaningful differentiator cited by major Italian media including Il Sole 24 Ore, Corriere della Sera, and La Repubblica. Customer segments span organic sector operators (producers, processors, retailers, restaurants), Italian food and agriculture journalists, organic retail and restaurant businesses, and consumers seeking verified organic establishments. Bio Bank is a small organization (1–10 employees) with no parent company, no subsidiaries, no external funding rounds, and a fully paid-in share capital of €3,000. Current authors are the historical founders Bertino and Achille Mingozzi alongside Emanuele Mingozzi.

Name

Bio Bank

Legal name

Bio Bank soc. coop.

Website

https://biobank.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Bio Bank is an Italian cooperative founded in 1993 that operates a proprietary database cataloging over 12,000 organic activities in Italy. It serves organic operators, retailers, journalists, and consumers through free databases, maps, reports, and newsletters, monetized exclusively via advertising.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Forlì

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Advertising: Bio Bank generates revenue exclusively through advertising that is clearly distinguished from editorial content. Multiple advertising formulas are offered, diversified by media type, to promote brands, products, and institutional or commercial communication to a professional and highly qualified audience.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Bio Bank is Italy's longest-running database and digital publishing system dedicated to the organic sector, cataloging over 12,000 organic activities including companies, e-commerce, shops, restaurants, agritourism, markets, and beauty shops. The free biobank.it portal integrates a searchable company and product database, interactive geolocated maps, a blog, and ongoing annual publications (Rapporto Bio Bank, Focus reports, Vetrina Bio Bank) delivered via Issuu and email newsletters to 13,000+ operators and 6,000+ retailers.

Product overview

Bio Bank is a specialized digital publishing system focused on organic products in Italy, active for over thirty years. The core offering is the Bio Bank Database (www.biobank.it) which aggregates information on over 12,000 bio activities including companies, e-commerce, restaurants, agritourism, markets, shops, and beauty shops. The ecosystem integrates the main portal biobank.it with databases, interactive maps (with 5,200+ geolocated activities), blog articles, and products showcase. Publishing products include: Rapporto Bio Bank (annual statistical panorama), Focus Bio Bank - Supermercati & Specializzati (retail channel analysis), Focus Bio Bank - Private label manufacturers (directory in English), and Vetrina Bio Bank (megatrend and product showcase). Distribution is supported by two newsletters: Bio Bank News (13,000 subscribers) and Vetrina Bio Bank Newsletter (6,000 subscribers). All resources are free and accessible to all users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bio Bank Database Foundational database cataloging information on over 12,000 bio activities in Italy, including companies, e-commerce sites, restaurants, agritourism, markets, shops, and beauty shops. The database is continuously enriched from Italian and foreign institutional sources and serves as the central data asset of Bio Bank's publishing ecosystem.
• Portal biobank.it Central information hub of Bio Bank, accessible free without registration, offering databases, interactive maps, blog, and product sections with always-up-to-date information on the Italian organic sector.
• Rapporto Bio Bank Annual statistical report providing a panoramic view of the organic sector in Italy within the European and global scenario, with analyses, graphics, and infographics spanning from 30 pages (2015) to 100 pages (2025). Freely accessible in Italian and English via Issuu.
• Focus Bio Bank - Supermercati & Specializzati Annual vertical report on large-scale retail and specialized stores in Italy, covering major distribution chains, bio brands, and comparison between large-scale retail and specialized bio shops across food and cosmetics categories.
• Focus Bio Bank - Private label manufacturers Directory in English dedicated to Italian organic companies that produce for private labels for the national and international market.
• Vetrina Bio Bank Annual publication presenting the year's megatrends, 20 bio trends from food to cosmetics, product showcase between excellences and novelties, featured companies, and certification rules. Available in digital (Italian/English) and printed editions.
• Bio Bank News Newsletter on key themes of the organic sector and market data, distributed to 13,000+ organic operators and the information world.
• Vetrina Bio Bank Newsletter Newsletter relaunching organic excellences and novelties, sent to 6,000+ bio retail, restaurant businesses, and companies, in synergy with the Blog and Products section of the Bio Bank portal.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 12,000 organic activities cataloged in database
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• V Label ItaliacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Partnership between Bio Bank and V Label Italia to promote bio-vegan products. V-Label is part of the history of the vegetarian and vegan movement in Italy. The bio-veg synergy generates an effect greater than the simple sum, promoting products that are increasingly bio and increasingly vegan.
• Nomisma per Osservatorio SanacoreOthersBio Bank incorporates systematic data from Nomisma for Osservatorio Sana for its reports, providing Italian organic market statistics including domestic consumption, exports, and retail channel data since 2018.
• FiBL-IFOAMcoreOthersBio Bank incorporates systematic data from FiBL-IFOAM (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture - International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) for European and global organic market statistics since 2021.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Dun & Bradstreet: Global data and analytics company providing business credit reports, corporate hierarchies, and marketing data. Comparable as the world's largest business data and directory provider with a model analogous to Bio Bank's operator database, though at a vastly larger scale and across all sectors.
• Bureau van Dijk (Moody's): Global business data provider offering company information, ownership hierarchies, and corporate structure databases. Comparable as a global business directory and data aggregator with a similar aggregation-and-dissemination business model, though serving all industries.
• Cerved: Italy's largest business information provider, aggregating corporate, financial, and credit data on Italian companies. Comparable as a directory and data aggregator in Italy with similar information-publishing business models, though broader in sector scope.
• IFOAM - Organics International: International umbrella organization for the global organic agriculture movement, coordinating organic standards and publishing worldwide statistics. Comparable as the upstream data and standards authority whose datasets Bio Bank integrates into its reporting.
• Kompass: International B2B directory providing searchable company information by category, geography, and product. Comparable as a global business-to-business directory with a database-driven, content-monetized model similar to Bio Bank's portal.
• FederBio: Italian federation of organic and biodynamic producers, operators, and certification bodies. Comparable as the principal Italian organic-sector association that maintains operator data and shapes the regulatory and data ecosystem Bio Bank operates in.
• FiBL: Switzerland-based Research Institute of Organic Agriculture providing global organic farming statistics and market data through 'The World of Organic Agriculture' annual. Comparable as the world's leading global organic-sector data provider, supplying Bio Bank with European and global market figures since 2021.

Direct peers

• Nomisma: Italian market research firm providing data and analysis on food, agriculture, and consumer goods, including the Osservatorio Sana observatory for Italian organic markets. Directly comparable because Bio Bank systematically incorporates Nomisma data for the same audience and competitive set.
• Osservatorio Sana: Italian observatory tracking organic market trends, providing statistics on Italian organic consumption, exports, and retail channels since 2018. Comparable as a complementary data source in the same Italian organic sector that Bio Bank cites and complements in its reports.

Regional players

• ItaliaBio: Italian association promoting organic agriculture and consumer awareness, also operating as an organic certification body. Comparable as a stakeholder organization within the Italian organic value chain publishing information for a similar audience.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/biobank_it
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/5174876/admin
• Instagraminstagram.com/biobank.it
• Facebookfacebook.com/biobank.it

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bio Bank