Neva SGR Research
Investment Thesis
Neva SGR is the venture capital company of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, wholly owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and based in Turin, Italy. Its stated mission is to empower international entrepreneurs facing the global challenges of the future: connect Italian founders with the global venture network, and bring international founders into the Italian industrial and scientific ecosystem. It invests globally in new category leaders in four areas: life science, climate tech and energy transition, digital transformation, and aerospace and manufacturing.
Stage Focus
The website does not state a stage band. The disclosed portfolio points to Series A and later rounds with some earlier Italian and European companies. Straiker was a $64M Series A (August 2026) and Nouscom a EUR 120M Series D (October 2026). CEO Mario Costantini describes the Neva II strategy as combining mature, fast-growing US companies with Italian and European companies at the start of their value-creation journey.
Check Size
Not disclosed. Neva II and Neva II Italia have a EUR 500M collection target, and Neva First and Neva First Italia total EUR 250M, so checks are likely to be mid-size participations rather than small seed tickets. Treat this as inference.
Lead Tendency
The press releases describe co-investing alongside leading international funds (Straiker, Nouscom). No lead role is announced, so lead tendency is recorded as unknown.
Funds
- Neva II and Neva II Italia: EUR 500M collection target, launched at end of 2024. Neva II Italia is SFDR Art. 8 and PIR compliant. The two co-invest.
- Neva II Parallelo Lombardia: EUR 20M, fully subscribed by Regione Lombardia's Lombardia Venture STEP fund of funds. Invests only in Lombardy cleantech companies at TRL 6 or higher.
- Neva First and Neva First Italia: EUR 250M total, operating since 2020. Neva First Italia is Italy-only.
- Sviluppo Ecosistemi di Innovazione: EUR 26M, subscribed by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. Invests in incubators, accelerators and startup studios in Italy.
Recent Activity
- October 2026: invested via Neva II in Nouscom's EUR 120M Series D (cancer interception immunotherapy), alongside Angelini Industries and the European Investment Bank.
- September 2026: hosted an event at OGR Torino with more than 650 guests.
- August 2026: participated in Straiker's $64M Series A (agentic AI security) through Neva II.
- June 2026: first exit for Neva II and Neva II Italia, Phosphorus acquired by Dragos. Neva II reached 11% DPI and estimated 1.06x TVPI. Neva First is expected to reach EUR 24M cumulative distributions (11% DPI).
- June 2025: invested in Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists 44 companies across life science (Nouscom, Kamau, NeoPhore, Tr1x, BetaGlue, Nuclidium, Stylus Medicine, Aavantgarde Bio), cybersecurity (Straiker, Phosphorus, Cyberint, Coro), energy (Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Energy Dome), aerospace (D-Orbit, Leaf Space, Skydweller), fintech (Modifi, Iwoca, MatiPay, Pontoro), and software and infrastructure (deskbird, Quali, Ternary, vFunction, Diamanti, XStream Labs). Marked exits: Phosphorus, Casavo, Cyberint, BluBrake, Hazy.
Team
- Mario Costantini: Head of Investment Team, CEO and General Manager
- Marco Di Miceli: Partner
- Stefano Ferraro: Partner
- Alberto Greppi: Partner
- Liliana Nordbakk: Partner
- Kashif Siddiqui: Partner
- Francesco Fontana: Principal, reference person for Neva II Parallelo Lombardia
- Luca Saldi, Cosimo Scarinci, Monica Volpin: Principals
Decision Process
Partnership model with a Head of Investment Team and six partners; the board is chaired by Luca Remmert. Neva supports portfolio companies through a business development unit: corporate partnerships, founder coaching, and fundraising and debt access.
Founder Preferences
Founders with proprietary technology solving large global problems, in markets with large reference size. Italian founders seeking access to the global VC network, and international founders wanting access to Italian industrial and scientific ecosystems.
Geographic Focus
Global, with US, Italy and Europe all represented. Several vehicles are Italy- or Lombardy-restricted.