Company

THE COSTA EDUTAINMENT GROUP

Costa Edutainment S.p.A., with decades of pioneering experience in the edutainment sector, is the leader in Italy in the management of sites and large public and private structures dedicated to recreational, cultural, educational and scientific research activities.

The word Edutainment, a fusion of Education and Entertainment, best defines the company's mission: to respond to the growing demand for a qualitative use of free time, combining culture, education, entertainment, emotion and entertainment in unique and meaningful experiences. Today it manages 12 structures at national and international level: in Liguria the Genoa Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in Europe, the Biosphere, the Bigo panoramic lift, the City of Children and Teenagers, reopened to the public in December 2022 in its renewed guise as an experience museum dedicated to the five senses, the Caravelle water park and the Caravelle Village tourist village in Ceriale; on the Romagna coast the Cattolica Aquarium, the Oltremare, Aquafan and Italia in Miniatura parks, and in Tuscany the Livorno Aquarium. It also manages the Mediterranean Marine Park in Malta.

The group includes C-way, the edutainment Tour Operator, born from the collaboration of two important brands in the sector, Costa Edutainment and Opera Laboratori Fiorentini. C-way's mission is to take care of incoming to the sites and structures managed by Costa Edutainment and Opera Laboratori, enriching it with unforgettable travel experiences, respectful of the places and their values, enhanced by moments of discovery of the history, art, environment and Italian traditions. In about 100 destinations, it offers the best of Italian heritage, always looking for new, unique and special itineraries that convey the beauty and identity of the places. 

The Costa Edutainment Spa Group registers around 3 million visitors a year managed directly and over 13 million visitors a year through its subsidiaries. He managed the transformation of the old Zoological Garden of Rome into a Bioparco from 1998 until July 2004, when Bioparco S.p.A. it was transformed into the Bioparco Foundation of Rome.

Until August 2017 he managed the National Museum of Antarctica, until February 2020 Dialogo nel Buio, the exhibition-sensory journey in the absence of light, and from 2004 to September 2021 the Galata Museo del Mare, the largest maritime museum in the Mediterranean . Since 2004, Costa Edutainment has been a member of the Science Festival Association, organizer of the scientific event that takes place every year in Genoa and in Liguria at the end of October. Since 2008, Costa Edutainment has been a member of the Genoa Palazzo Ducale Foundation for Culture, an institution in charge of enhancing the heritage of cultural initiatives and networks, within the framework of a strategy that seeks to guarantee a strong link between urban redevelopment and the quality of culture according to the city.

From July 2022, IDeA Corporate Credit Recovery II (“IDeA CCR II”), the second Italian DIP (Debtor-in-Possession) Financing fund, managed by DeA Capital Alternative Funds SGR (a company of the DeA Capital Group) has entered in the Costa Edutainment Group with a 10% stake, thanks to a capital increase of Euro 5 million, as well as the injection of financial resources by IDeA itself, illimity Bank S.p.A. and the AZIMUT ELTIF Private Debt - Capital Solutions (“AZIMUT Capital Solutions”) fund, managed by Muzinich & Co. SGR for Euro 35 million through the issue of a convertible bond.

The operation aims to consolidate the leadership of the group, continuing the path of constant growth recorded in the pre-pandemic years also through the acquisition of new parks and new structures on the national and international territory. The entrepreneurial spirit, a strong educational mission and the close link with the territory make Costa Edutainment a unique group in Italy able to guarantee a high local involvement and strong economic repercussions in the areas in which it operates.

Costa Edutainment, associated with the Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) since 2022, in the growth path it has undertaken in about thirty years of activity, has consolidated its commitment to sustainability with the aim of producing positive social and environmental impacts in the territories in which it operates. In fact Costa Edutainment, in its way of understanding its business, aims to enhance the economic, social and environmental aspects in a balanced way, with the belief that the value of the company can grow more when it integrates the ESG criteria (Environmental, Social, Governance) within company processes.

Since 2014 Costa Edutainment has also chosen to report annually on the non-financial aspects of its business through the Integrated Report which in 2019 the company received the important recognition of the Special Award in the Integrated Reporting category of the Budget Oscar for the Best Integrated Report Italian by Ferpi, Borsa Italiana and Bocconi University.

Costa Edutainment is also involved in the Italian Entertainment Network (IEN), an Italian operator in the management of major events and services for cultural activities, of which Beppe Costa, President of the Costa Edutainment group, is currently a director. Beppe Costa with the Opera20 company, which includes Poggio 13, a company controlled by Costa himself, Cultura a Firenze Srl, a company of the founding partners of Opera Laboratori Fiorentini, Sillabe Srl, a Livorno-based publishing house for years engaged in art publications and the American fund Pricoa, took over Opera Laboratori, a company of which he is currently President, with an annual turnover of approximately 80 million euros and approximately 900 employees, which supplies the commercial spaces of the Vatican Museums and which for years has participated in the management of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, the Medici Chapels, the Accademia Gallery in Florence and the Siena Cathedral and some structures in San Gimignano. www.costaedutainment.it