Intesa Sanpaolo launches two VC funds

07 July 2009

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Funds

Intesa Sanpaolo has launched two funds, Atlante Ventures and Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno, set to invest in venture capital projects. Atlante Ventures is a EUR25m fund with the facility of extension by a further EUR25m. The fund has a 12-year lifespan. Set up in parallel, Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno (which will soon come into operation) is a EUR25m fund with a 10-year lifespan. Both funds are based in Italy.

Investors

While Atlante Ventures is entirely subscribed to by the Intesa Sanpaolo group, Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno is subscribed to by IMI Investimenti and by the Department for Innovation, part of the Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation.

Investments

Atlante Ventures aims to support the start-up of Italian companies by helping to fill the current void in financial support for university and company spin-offs and to promote partnership agreements between new and already established businesses. The vehicle has already made an initial investment of EUR1.5m in biomedical business Igea, which has developed an innovative therapy for some types of surface tumours that is already being used in the main Italian oncological centres, and is in course for distribution at European level.

Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno will focus on Southern Italy, sharing the same team and technological skills as the Atlante Ventures fund. Partnership agreements have been reached with universities and research centres in order to be able to ensure top level consultancy in assessing and preparing the business development plans.

People

The funds will be managed Davide Turco and Aurelio Mezzotero. Both funds will benefit from supervision by an investment committee made up of experts in technology and venture capital. Members of this committee include: Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (professor of electronics and computer science at Berkeley and co-founder of Cadence and Synopsys, companies quoted on the Nasdaq); Alessandra Perrazzelli (MD of Intesa Sanpaolo Eurodesk); Luciano Hassan (Intesa Sanpaolo private equity manager). The Atlante Ventures investment committee will also include Catia Bastioli (CEO of Novamont), demonstrating interest in "cleantech", while the presence of Claudio Carnevale (CEO of Acotel) enhances the "digital" skills of the committee, which also has Fabio Borsoi (manager of the group fund devoted to small and medium-sized businesses in the South) among its members.

Name: Atlante Ventures

Target: EUR25-50m

Focus: Start-ups

ItalyName: Atlante Ventures Mezzogiorno

Target: EUR25m

Focus: Start-ups

Southern Italy

Contact: Davide Turco

Address: Piazza della Scole 6, 20121 Milan, Italy

Tel: +39 02 8794 3571.