Intesa Sanpaolo bank launches its own corporate venture capital unit in order to keep pace with the lastest developments in the fintech sector. The announcement was madeby the banks’ head of innovation and growth division Livio Scalvini, in an interview to Class Cnbc tv channel (Class Editori group).
Named Neva Finventures spa, the new investment veichle will be led by Mr. Scalvini himself and will count on a 30-100 million euros budget. Neva Finventures is already active and is scouting its first potential investments. Target for the fund will be startup companies in Italy as well as all over the world and Neva Finventures will buy a minority stake.
“Intesa Sanpaolo thinks that an ope innovation approach is something you can’t miss if you want to stay competitive as for news technologiesand for new business models”, Mr. Scalvini said, adding that “the bank already works together with fintech startups but through Neva Finventures will be able to build solid and long-term partneships with those companies”.
Intesa Sanpaolo also invests as a traditional venture capital firm with its three venture funds Atlante Venture, Atlante Seed and Atlante Mezzogiorno which are managed by Imi Fondi Chiusi sgr.
Last September rumors were that after having spun-off its private quity activities (see here a previous post by BeBeez), IntesaSanpaolo was preparing to sell its venture capital activites as well (see here a previous post by BeBeez). However that want be the case. Something is certainly going to happen but that won’t be an exit from venture capital sector for Intesa Sanpaolo. Mr. Scalvini said that “news and developments are going to be announced soon”.
