Archeide launches €50m VC fund

The fund expects to hold a first close on around €15m by the end of 2020.

"We launched our vehicle at the beginning of the year, but following the coronavirus outbreak we experienced a phase of stall and have only recently restarted our fundraising," Archeide Lux CEO Alessandro Bruscagin told Unquote. "Despite this slowdown, we have seen increasing interest among investors for the venture capital segment and are confident in reaching a quick first close."

The fund will target Italian startups developing innovative products and applications that are already able to generate revenues and with high-growth potential. It will deploy tickets between €300,000-2.5m, investing across the entire venture capital ecosystem, with a special focus on fintech, energy efficiency and software businesses, but will not exclude other segments such as biotech.

The GP expects to build an LP base primarily composed of entrepreneurs and family offices, as well as small institutional investors.

Archeide will be supported, especially in deal screening and origination, by advisory firm Focus Futuro, which specialises in the fintech sector.

"The Italian venture ecosystem has seen a rapid development in terms of both volume and quality in the last few years,"  Bruscagin said. "We are already considering some interesting opportunities for our new fund and are thrilled by the idea of supporting talented managers in scaling up their companies."

This is the first Archeide fund dedicated to the venture capital space and the third vehicle raised by the GP.

It follows a debut fund, which had a focus on the financial sector and is currently fully divested, and a second vehicle, Empower Fund, which was launched in 2014 to invest in renewables and energy efficiency startups. Among its investments is RegalGrid Europe, a platform that specialises in the management of energy resources.

Archeide has recently exited credit factoring business Coefi to private equity firm Clessidra.

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