Two venture-capital firms, supported by an important institutional player, Fondo Italiano di Investimento, in the capacity of anchor investor, have combined to form UNITED VENTURES, the first investment company founded upon the entrepreneurial venture capital model already successfully established on all advanced VC markets which held its first closing at €30 million, and has set a fund-raising target of €50 million.
This particular venture capital model, termed “entrepreneurial”, is based on the involvement of partners capable of truly and effectively combining industrial expertise and financial capacity on the basis of real, objective track records. In fact, UNITED VENTURES brings together the skills and experience of Annapurna Ventures, specialized in seed investing and founded by Massimiliano Magrini, and Jupiter Venture Capital, specialized in early-stage and late-stage investments and founded by Paolo Gesess in 1999. Together with Massimiliano Magrini and Paolo Gesess, the United Ventures team includes very high level professionals with a thorough grasp of the digital technologies market, like Mario Mariani (founder of the incubator The Net Value and former partner of Annapurna Ventures), and Sergio Zocchi (former partner of Jupiter Ventures), who have long, balanced and consolidated entrepreneurial, managerial and investment experience. UNITED VENTURES, which is supported by important institutional and private investors, aims to contribute to the transformation of the extensive activity witnessed in recent months in Italy’s start-up arena by effectively leveraging growth and innovation. The goal: give rise to a virtuous effect on development for new companies with a technological focus, as well as more traditional industry, which can – and indeed must – take advantage of the creation of a new entrepreneurial framework aimed at seizing opportunities for expanding and increasing competitive ability through M&A transactions.
In addition to Fondo Italiano di Investimento, the first closing also saw the participation of Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, Banca Sella and Banca Patrimoni.
Massimiliano Magrini, co-founder and managing partner, explained:
“There is an entire generation of young Italians with entrepreneurial talent who would prefer to have the opportunity to create their own jobs rather than look for one. To do so, they will need to found their own companies, and this is why the system needs venture capital. UNITED VENTURES was founded with this in mind: we provide venture capital to create successful, innovative companies, and thus high-quality jobs in the digital technology market, which by its nature gives rise to companies that operate at a global level. In addition, innovative companies can act as a driver for the growth of Italian industry at large.”
Paolo Gesess, co-founder and managing partner, added: “This first closing, completed with important support from both institutional investors and successful digital economy entrepreneurs, is only the first stage in a process that, as entrepreneurs and operators in the digital sector with the highest innovation rate, we believe needs to be completed as swiftly as possible. This is why UNITED VENTURES has set itself an important growth target that will allow it to carry out its activity by interacting with other operators in the national and international ecosystem through co-investing.”
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