Primo Digital kicks-off: first closing at 62 million euros to invest in Italian seed to early stage digital startups

22 mar 2022

The overall fundraising target of Primo Digital is 80 million euros.
The fund has adopted the ESG criteria and begins the scouting for the first investments
with a focus on the regions in Southern Italy.

Milan, 22nd of March 2022

It is now active Primo Digital, the new early stage tech venture fund focused on the digital markets, launched by Primo Ventures. The fund - managed by the Partners Antonio Concolino, Gianluca Dettori, Franco Gonella e Niccolò Sanarico - starts with an initial commitment of €62 million and has as cornerstone investors CDP Venture Capital SGR - through the FoF VenturItaly funds, the Mise co-investment fund and the Italia Venture II fund - Fondo Imprese Sud - and the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Furthermore, other institutional investors that supported the project are Tinexta, a leading group in the sector of advanced digitalisation listed on the stock exchange, and Banca Sella Holding, as well as some angel investors and the key people of Primo Ventures themselves. The final funding target of the Primo Digital fund was set at 80 million.

The fund has the goal to originate, develop and monetize a portfolio of around 25 companies in the software and digital industry over the next 10 years, with a particular focus on startups established in the regions of Southern Italy. The investments will focus around four main areas:

Software, with a special focus on B2B, applications that can scale internationally by improving the competitiveness of companies or by enabling new business models;
Retail & marketplaces, with particular interest in the deep evolution of consumer needs and the needs for corporate to evolve in the post-Covid new normal;
Cybersecurity, particularly those solutions able to address the growing problems arising from new forms of attack on data and information;
The great cloud of financial innovation (blockchain, fintech, insurtech, regtech, proptech, legaltech);

Primo Digital, in line with Primo Ventures' commitment, is a native ESG fund in all activities concerning the investment process, support and monitoring of its subsidiaries. Sustainability criteria will be taken into consideration when making new investments, favoring those opportunities that allow the achievement of objectives in line with these criteria in addition to mere financial returns.

"Primo Digital continues its journey building on top of experiences and lessons learned doing early-stage venture capital investing from Italy, with our two previous funds - stated Gianluca Dettori, Chairman of Primo Ventures and Primo Digital General Partner - our focus is to invest in the very early stages of startups and high-impact entrepreneurial teams that - with the right support and capital - have the potential to create large and competitive companies. We often prefer to lead in these stages, while the fund is designed to build also significant coinvestment syndicates, particularly in the later phases of development.”

From the initial investments and follow-ons made in the past by the Primo Digital team, companies such as Cortilia, Brandon Group, Yolo, Sardex, Iubenda, Vivaticket, Viamente, Keyless (now Sift) and Mindesk (now Vection Technologies) were born. Primo Ventures continues to oversee the seed segment, but with an endowment that is almost double the previous Barcamper Ventures fund and therefore with the possibility of investing significant resources in the subsequent rounds of a single company. In fact, a significant part of the fund will be reserved for follow-ons aimed at accelerating the growth of the companies in the portfolio.

"The entry into Primo Digital represents an injection of confidence in a team that has shown a long-term capability for vision, investing in embryonic companies that over time have grown into three of the best Italian scaleups, and which now focuses in particular on to the realities present in the South" comments Enrico Resmini, CEO and General Manager of CDP Venture Capital SGR, "Startups need managers that are able to read their growth potential from the earliest stages of life and accompany them in the process of consolidation in the market."

EIF Chief Executive Alain Godard added: “I welcome the launch of Primo Digital Fund to support investments in new early-stage companies operating in the tech sector. With the support of the EIF under the Pan-European Guarantee Fund, these innovative digital businesses will contribute to strengthen Europe’s recovery and digital transition, a key element of the Recovery Plan for Europe.”

"The investment in Primo Digital - declared the Chief Executive Officer of Tinexta, Pierandrea Chevallard - is consistent with the strategies of our Group and in line with our Open Innovation program, thanks to which we have already selected and integrated several innovative start-ups. We are pleased to be among the investors of the new fund which, in addition to allowing us to intercept new investment opportunities, represents a tangible contribution to accelerating the development of digital innovation in the Italian system."

Primo Digital is starting with an initial capital of 62 million Euros, the objective is to fundraise up to €80 million. Primo Digital includes two parallel funds fully subscribed by CDP Venture Capital, Parallel Italia - which will systematically co-invests in companies established in Italy and a second - Parallel Italia Sud - which coinvests in startups established in Southern Italy.

The constant monitoring of the portfolio, the proximity to the founders and the presence on the Board of Directors of the invested companies will also allow a continuous improvement of the sustainability footprint of the Primo Digital portfolio, guaranteeing subscribers an authentic impact.

For CDP Venture Capital SGR, the transaction was handled by Cristina Bini, Simona Corno and Mara Attardi, respectively Head, Senior Investment Manager and Associate of FoF VenturItaly, and by Francesca Ottier, Federico Lanciano and Paola Deidda, respectively Head, Senior Investment Manager and Associate of the Italia Venture II fund - Fondo Imprese Sud.

The closing was handled by Alma STA, with a team supervised by the managing partner Alessandro Corno and composed of the senior associate Andrea Venturini and the junior associate Giuseppe Di Leva.

PRIMO VENTURES is an asset management company specializing in early stage tech venture capital in the digital and space sector. Primo Ventures currently manages the following funds: Barcamper Ventures, Barcamper Ventures Lazio, in partnership with the Lazio Region, and Primo Digital in the digital sector and Primo Space Fund in the new space economy sector.

www.primo.vc

For more information: francesca.boni@primo.vc

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