Atlas SGR announces that it has approved the first closing of the funds Atlas PMI Destinazione Futuro, an alternative investment fund (AIF) of debt investing in Italian SMEs, and Atlas AI VB Fund I, a venture capital fund focused on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity start-ups founded within European and global venture builders.
Atlas SME Destinazione Futurohas obtained an initial investment of EUR 15 million with a two-year funding target of EUR 100 million. The fund is designed to operate in an environment characterised by credit rationing towards companies, particularly smaller ones, and the proliferation of alternative financing channels.
Atlas PMI Destinazione Futuro invests in Italian SMEs, presented to Atlas SGR by a network of selected partners, mainly leading Confidi and selected crowdfunding platforms. It operates through loans to SMEs and freelancers, or as an investor in minibond and crowfunding/crowdlending operations, with investments lasting up to seven years. The amount of the loan is up to EUR 500,000, with a minimum 50% guarantee issued by Confidi, counter-guaranteed by the Fondo Centrale di Garanzia for SMEs, or through a direct guarantee by the same Fondo Centrale, depending on the regulations in force.
To the increased regulatory pressure for intermediaries to integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) indicators into their investment criteria, Atlas SME Destination Future responds with the generation of a profile for each financed company, based on more than 40 indicators, with relevant benchmarks for sector, territory, portfolio. It is an activity that does not directly affect the selection criteria, but is aimed at increasing the sustainability awareness of companies and to which a bonus is linked at the end of the depreciation period.
SME Destinazione Futuro respects the guidelines established by Art. 8 SFDRs and invests at least 70 per cent in Italian SMEs, qualifying as PIRs (Individual Long-Term Savings Plans) under Budget Law 2017 – 232/2016, with significant tax advantages for Pension Funds and Pension Funds.
Atlas PMI Destinazione Futuro is managed by the general partner and head of fund management, Giuseppe Andrea Tateo.
Atlas AI VB Fund I, with a target of EUR 50 million, raised an initial investment of EUR 10 million. The venture capital fund focuses on start-ups launched by venture builders and offers an investment strategy characterised by an optimal risk-return profile. The fund’s venture builder partners include: Merantix (Germany), FoolFarm (Italy), Post Urban Ventures (UK), Slimmer AI (Netherlands), and Nobody Studios (US). Atlas AI VBFund I invests in the pre-seed and seed stages of start-ups with follow-on possibilities up to Series A.
The management of the fund is entrusted to Matteo Confalonieri, assisted by Vitantonio Santoroe and also with the collaboration of Luca Mariot, assistant professor at the University of Twente and expert in artificial intelligence.
‘Thanks to the first closings, Atlas SGR is finally operational,’ stated Alessandro Messina (in the photo), CEO of Atlas SGR and member of the investment committees in both funds, in a note. The positioning of our funds is unique and innovative, because on the one hand we finance the real economy of the country, the projects of traditional small and medium-sized enterprises, accompanying them towards sustainable development. On the other hand, we focus on start-ups that develop the most cutting-edge technologies, born within venture builders with models and methods that allow them to seize the best timing for investment and, at the same time, mitigate the risks typical of the sector by maintaining a unique observatory towards initiatives permanently on the frontier of advanced innovation, with a strong strategic impact on production and industrial processes’.
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