INTESA SANPAOLO INNOVATION CENTER
SUSTAINS DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN
INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM WITH SUPPORT FROM FONDO SEI

• Fondo Sviluppo Ecosistemi di Innovazione (Fondo SEI), administered by Neva SGR, will have initial resources of €15 million for targeted investments in vehicles for the implementing research, selection, acceleration and professionalisation programmes for promising Italian start-ups.
• The first investment of €2.5 million has been announced: Tech4Planet, the National Technology Transfer Centre for Sustainability created by the CDP Venture Capital initiative through the Technology Transfer Fund.

Turin, 18 October 2022 – Through its subsidiary Neva SGR the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center has established a venture capital company of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, the Italian closed-end and reserved alternative investment fund "Fondo Sviluppo Ecosistemi di Innovazione" (Fondo SEI) to support the growth of the Italian innovation ecosystem.

The new Fondo SEI will have initial resources of €15 million, fully subscribed by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, and a future maximum amount of €50 million, reserved for qualified investors. The Fund, administered by Neva SGR, will invest in undertakings for collective investment (UCIs) or other types of vehicles managed by third parties – e.g. incubators, accelerators, start-up studios, holding companies – the main aim of which is implementing programmes for the research, selection, acceleration and professionalisation of start-ups in Italy.

Today Fondo SEI announced its first investment of €2.5 million in Tech4Planet, the National Technology Transfer Centre for Sustainability set up at the initiative of CDP Venture Capital with the Milan Polytechnic and with the involvement of the Bari and Turin Polytechnics, with the aim of developing and bringing to market projects created within the laboratories of universities and research centres in the proof-of-concept (PoC) and seed phases in the energy tech, sustainable manufacturing, smart mobility and circular economy sectors.

"By their very nature, the funds promoted and administered so far by our subsidiary Neva SGR cannot allocate subscribers' capital to immature companies, such as start-ups that are created and take their first steps in universities, polytechnics and research centres," commented Maurizio Montagnese, Chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. "With the specific desire to contribute to the growth of our country's innovative ecosystems, including in the area of new advanced technologies for sustainability, we activated Neva SGR to set up Fondo SEI, completely dedicated to vehicles that in turn invest in research, selection, acceleration and professionalisation programmes for promising start-ups. I would like to emphasise the value of getting up and running immediately; accordingly, the decision to make an initial investment in Tech4Planet – a vehicle created with the collaboration of partners such as the CDP Group and three prestigious polytechnic institutions – dovetails perfectly with the objectives we had set for ourselves."

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