(Finance) – Four years after the start of operations, Neva SGR – the Group’s venture capital company Intesa San Paolo – raises the bar and relaunches its commitment for the creation and development of innovative technological platforms in key sectors of the economy and society.
The SGR, led by Mario Costantini and chaired by Luca Remmert, has announced the Closing of the Neva First Fund Investment Portfolio Composition Period one year early and the first distribution of capital to subscribers, thanks to the valorization of the exit from Cyberint’s capital after its recent acquisition by the global cybersecurity operator Check Point. At the same time it has doubled its objectives: new Neva II funds will have a final investment capacity of 500 million euros compared to 250 million for the Neva First funds.
The results achieved
In order to present, in addition to the two new funds, the results achieved in four years and the growth prospects, Neva SGR has gathered today at Large Repair Workshops in Turin (OGR) a vast audience of venture capitalists, corporations, institutional investors, experts, entrepreneurs and startuppers from all over Italy and many other countries, led by the United States.
From August 2020 to today, despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic in the first two years, Neva SGR has achieved the objectives set ahead of scheduleinvesting with its first three funds – Neva First for global investments, Neva First Italia dedicated to national companies and Fondo Sei for the development of Italian innovative ecosystems – approximately 170 million euros in over 40 highly innovative companies with strong growth.
Regarding Neva First, Costantini spoke of a surplus value of 50 million euros in value discounted to June 30, with a 1.3x on the invested capital, “an excellent number considering that many companies have entered the portfolio in the last year-year and a half, many are operating in innovative areas where the value grows in the case of subsequent rounds”.
The CEO explained that the portfolio can essentially be divided into three areas: “first of all there are ten top contributorswith a potential return of between 3 and 8 times, and for which approximately 10 million euros have been invested in each. Then come the good contributorwith a return between 2 and 3 times, which are 15 companies on which just under 70 million have been allocated. Finally, there are the minor contributoror 13 companies in which less than 30 million euros have been invested, with a potential return of 0.3 times to 1 times”.
These three groups also have three different strategies: “on top contributors time is not important, but value is importantthey can be worth over 500 million each at the exit and therefore we have to support them to reach the final result; on the good ones the objective is to mix value and time, while on the minor ones the objective is to clean the desk: they are companies that are perhaps excellent but where our share is small, or they are companies that are unable to reach the plan and our strategy is to get them bought in the fastest time possible, distracting the attention of our team as little as possible”.
In any case, “the The first fund’s portfolio was quality and resilientwe have gone through – starting in the summer of 2020 – the perfect storm – noted the president Luca Remmert And in these years we have grown a lot, with a network of relationships that we have managed to create and with the improvement of the team: today we have people in New York and in Silicon Valley”.
The new initiatives
For the new funds, Neva SGR has set challenging goals, supported by the excellent results achieved so far, by the progressive extension of the network of international relations and by the growing interest, also in Italy, of venture capital as an investment tool for qualified operators and private clients. Neva II aims to raise a final sum of around 400 million euros, to be invested in the best highly innovative emerging companies worldwide, while Neva II Italy plans to raise 100 million euros to be reserved for Italian companies.
Both funds have a mandate to focus their attention on companies operating in sectors of priority importance for the future of the planetsuch as life sciences, energy transition, digital transformation, next-generation manufacturing and aerospace.
“This is a really important challenge, because we reach significant dimensions and raise the bar “in an incredible way – explained Remmert – Intesa will put 200 million euros out of 500 million euros. This fact is important not only for the benefits themselves, but it is a sign of trust that such an important group gives for its venture capital fund”.
“In our mission we obviously have the objective of giving investors their shares with a nice multiplier – and so when we make an exit like with Cyberint we are really proud – but there is another very important component: contribute to the creation and development of innovative companies in key sectors of the economy and society,” he added.
The operation of the new funds
Today’s event in Turin marks the start of the second phase of Neva SGR, with teams already working to close several deals in the coming months. “The pipeline for new fund is active: within the year we will close 2-3 investments that have already been extensively analyzed, so we have a well-nourished pipeline across several geographies”, explained the CEO.
When asked if Neva II will have the same philosophy as Neva First, he explained: “The main difference is in approach: with the first fund we had an exploratory approach in some cases, applying more timid allocations even in companies in which we were totally confident. Today we are clear on the fact that when the pattern is good we need to accelerate and invest more resources. We need to be more courageous in allocating capital right now.. Where we believe in it, we need to push and take the largest possible share because that’s where we’ll have the greatest profit” https://www.Finance.it/DettaglioNews/57_2024-09-18_TLB/. “We want to contribute more within the companies, follow their growth, mark the expected growth points well, to do this we need to count within the companies”, echoed the president.
Costantini explained that the subscription period will end in 2026 and the company will have time to “dialogue with provident funds (starting from the largest ones such as engineers, doctors, pharmacists), pension funds and banking foundations. We will do this by showing what we are doing with the first exit, 8-10% of the capital already returned, which if compared to any less risky product seems like an excellent result to me”.
The collection will not be limited to these institutional investors but will also be made on the market, with resources from private individuals and large families, also thanks to the large network of Intesa Sanpaolo. It will however be a collection concentrated on Italy, while the first steps are being taken to make Neva emerge abroad: “We started with our country, with our Italian underwriters, and then we have already started the authorization process and in some cases already obtained a license as in the European community – says the CEO – We have had positive feedback from regulators and we have started discussions. The strategy also includes the expansion of partners abroadobviously it’s about positioning ourselves, making ourselves known and this is a medium-term challenge”.
Looking at the exits, “we are totally confident about the exits of our companiesbecause they are all companies that have a well-defined and clear path, both from an industrial and financial point of view”, said Costantini, who sees the “reopening of IPOs” for the exit, because “there are also positive structural signals such as the lowering of interest rates and other signals. There are all the conditions for a healthy market even in this asset class, where there have been moments of speculative bubbles, with listed companies without any underlying that then lost most of their value. We have the back to basics and we invest in companies with value”.