NVM Ventures Debuts With €23.6M First Close to Back Europe’s Next Dual-Use DeepTech Startups

A new venture capital platform is entering Italy’s DeepTech market with €23.6 million in initial capital. NVM Ventures has launched its first investment vehicle, NVM Venture Lazio, with a target of reaching €35 million. The fund will focus on pre-Seed and Seed-stage companies developing technologies with both civilian and strategic applications.

NVM Ventures was created by Andrea Bonabello and Niccolò Bienati, founding partners and board members of Ulixes Capital Lux, who are responsible for the fund's strategic direction. They are joined by fund managers Giorgio Gulienetti and Alessandro Casiraghi, who serve as key members of the Lazio vehicle. The team combines experience across venture capital, corporate finance, technology companies and critical industries including aerospace and defence.

The Lazio fund plans to build a portfolio of between 10 and 15 startups, primarily acting as a lead investor in companies with international growth potential. Its investment mandate covers technologies classified under the EU's Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, or STEP, particularly where innovations can serve both commercial and strategic needs.

Its areas of interest include aerospace, maritime technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, cybersecurity, AI for defence, energy infrastructure, advanced materials, advanced manufacturing and biotechnology. The strategy is aimed at startups moving beyond laboratory research and beginning the difficult transition toward products, customers and industrial-scale deployment.

A major contributor to the first close is Lazio Innova, which has committed €18.83 million through Lazio Venture 2. The regional fund-of-funds is co-financed through the Lazio Region's 2021-2027 ERDF programme, with NVM Venture Lazio selected as one of its investment vehicles.

NVM Ventures is structured as a multi-compartment fund, allowing different investment strategies to operate under a common institutional framework. According to the fund, this model gives specialist teams access to shared governance, risk-management and compliance infrastructure while allowing each vehicle to concentrate on a particular technology thesis.

The launch comes as European investors and governments are placing greater emphasis on dual-use technology. In June, the European Innovation Council expanded its programmes to include defence and dual-use technologies, including AI, robotics and advanced materials, reflecting the region's wider push for technological sovereignty and stronger strategic capabilities.

Lazio is particularly important to NVM's first strategy because the region hosts a broad aerospace ecosystem spanning research, manufacturing and services. Regional figures cited at launch indicate that more than 300 advanced-technology companies employ around 23,000 people, generating more than €5 billion in annual revenue, including approximately €1.6 billion from exports.

With its first close, NVM Venture Lazio is targeting the point where DeepTech companies move from validated technology toward commercial products and industrialisation. The fund aims to provide both early capital and sector-specific expertise to help founders turn technically complex innovations into scalable businesses.