The Board of Directors of Eureka! Venture, the investment firm specialising in deeptech and alternative assets led by CEO Stefano Peroncini has approved the half-year reports as at 31 December 2023 of the funds managed by the SGR, which record, overall, significant growth, both in investments made and in NAV (net asset value) and also the first successful exits.
2023 closes with 100 investors and €110 million in total funding from the SGR, of which 62% attributable to institutional entities such as the European Investment Fund and CDP Venture Capital and 23% from industrial corporates, including A2A, Nestlé, SAES, Umbra Group, Calzedonia, Jakala. In aggregate, the funds managed by the SGR, Eureka! Fund and BlackSheep Fund, show their respective NAVs growing, which stand at a total of over 50 million euros.
In terms of investments, 25 investments have been made by Eureka to date! Fund I – Technology Transfer, of which the last two in the first quarter of 2024. Investments were made in BeDimensional (a spin-off of the Italian Institute of Technology active in the production of two-dimensional crystals, such as graphene), in 3DNextech (a spin-off of the Sant’Anna School of Pisa, which developed an innovative chemical treatment for the finishing of products made through additive manufacturing), in Planckian (the first joint spin-off of the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore, which is developing a new concept of battery based on quantum phenomena) and two Poc (proof of concept) investments in partnership with the University of Bologna and the CNR, which aim at advanced technological projects in the packaging field.
Growth for all the funds of the SGR
BlackSheep MadTech Fund, the second fund managed by the SGR, has 9 companies in its portfolio in addition to the 2 already sold, for a total of 11 investments, 3 of which were made during 2023. Investments during the year include: Shop Circle (an English company led by two Italian entrepreneurs who have developed an aggregator and consolidator of e-commerce tools, in co-investment with The Techshop, Primo Ventures and CDP Venture Capital) and Inflead, an Italian platform for the management and automation of Influencer Marketing activities that is based on proprietary algorithms and statistical methods to optimize and improve all processes and the activation of Influencer Marketing campaigns for brands and agencies.
“We have built a portfolio that is not only solid and ready to face difficult times like this, but also made up of companies that already raise interest in the M&A market of our vertical, as demonstrated by the two exits made during the year just ended – comments Sandro Moretti Cane, managing director of BlackSheep funds – . Two exits have already been made: Scibid, a French company acquired for $ 125 million by DoubleVerify, a big tech listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Roibox , a Latvian geospatial analytics platform, acquired by Jakala, a leading company in martech solutions”.
With regard to the valuation of investments, despite the fact that the investment period is still ongoing for all funds, in addition to the first two exits with average returns of 35%, there are further signs of interest from third-party investors who have already led to significant increases in the fair market value of the companies in the portfolio. To date all the activities of Eureka! Fund and BlackSheep Fund sees the involvement of 34 startups, innovative companies and Poc projects, a total turnover for the year of more than 32 million euros, a total of 540 employees and more than 70 patents, patent applications filed and licenses. (Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash )
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