Eden Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Eden Ventures is an international venture capital firm based in Milan and backed by Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), the main Italian business angel network. It describes itself as the garden of Eden for pre-seed startups, letting founders flourish with capital plus access to a 500+ angel network. The pitch is network-powered pre-seed investing: Eden invests alongside super angels, accelerators and VCs, and uses the IAG angel base and 100+ international partners to open business connections and later fundraising through club deals and VC partners. The tagline is "From Zero To The Moon".
Stage Focus
Exclusively pre-seed. IAG launched Eden Venture in October 2022 as a dedicated pre-seed tool so that IAG itself could concentrate on the seed stage while still catching the best opportunities earlier. A few portfolio companies later raised seed rounds, with Eden participating in the pre-seed round that mattered.
Check Size
Up to EUR 100,000 per company, advertised as a "Fast Check" delivered in about 30 days. Instruments are flexible: SAFEs, convertible notes and equity. The firm says it completes at least 50% of the round it joins, and looks for the presence of professional investors in the round, which implies a co-investing posture around a larger syndicate.
Lead Tendency
Eden commits to filling at least half of a round, but public deal data shows it usually sits inside syndicates led by other funds or angels (for example Kima Ventures, Vento, Octopus Ventures and Plug and Play co-investors in recent rounds). Lead tendency is therefore recorded as both.
Recent Activity
The portfolio page was refreshed in March 2026 with new additions: Volta, Pillar, Bricks.sh, Mosaico, Principled Intelligence, ZUBA and Minitap. Third-party deal trackers list Pillar (USD 3.8M pre-seed, September 2025), Principled Intelligence (USD 2.2M pre-seed, January 2026) and Bricks.sh (USD 1.9M pre-seed, January 2026) as the latest tracked rounds. Earlier tracked rounds include Glaut (April 2024), StepsConnect (March 2024) and GUUD (July 2023). The firm appears to be actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
About 27 companies are shown on the site. Notable themes are AI agents and developer tooling (Notte, Bugpilot, Circlemind, Bricks.sh, Unakin, Minitap, Principled Intelligence, Almanax), deeptech (Vaire Computing near-zero energy chips, Mosaico robotics data, Sizable pumped-hydro storage), B2B software (Volta, Complaion, Pillar construction OS, Glaut research interviews), HR and talent (Stema, Anthropos, StepsConnect), and consumer and femtech (Amilis, Guud Woman, Subbyx, Lumi). No exits are listed.
Team
- Giovanni Strocchi, Managing Partner; previously Venture Partner at BlackSheep Ventures
- Leonardo Giagnoni, Managing Partner; Managing Director of IAG
- Silvia Pugi, Managing Partner; Head of CSR at Manageritalia
- Riccardo Fisogni, Managing Partner; former Director at BlackRock and Merrill Lynch
- Emanuele Torlonia, Managing Partner; IAG associate specialized in pre-seed and digital deal flow
- Riccardo Vanelli, Venture Partner
Decision Process
A team of managing partners with a streamlined, fast process and proactive scouting. Applications come in through a Dealum form. Exact committee mechanics are not public, so this is recorded as partnership.
Founder Preferences
The site says it loves serial entrepreneurs, multidisciplinary hard and soft skills and strong commitment. On market, it wants multibillion-dollar markets, hyper-growth sectors and well defined target customers. On deal structure it wants professional investors present and a clear roadmap with KPIs.
Geographic Focus
Based in Milan and anchored in the Italian ecosystem, but describes itself as international and several portfolio companies are based in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Recorded as Italy and Europe.
Gaps
AUM and fund size are not disclosed. Fund status is inferred from recent portfolio additions. Company-level stage and date data comes from third-party trackers rather than the firm's own site.