ITALY – Lumen Ventures, a Rome, Italy-based early stage venture capital firm, has launched its $25m maiden fund.
After obtaining the authorization from the Italian Central Bank as simple investment company(1), the firm is investing in SMEs and startups with high technological and innovative potential in the following sectors: Led by Davide Fioranelli (2), Lumen is entering the market with a collection target of 25m to invest over four years into early stage startups, The firm’s President of the Board of Directors is Rita Laura D’Ecclesi, Full time Professor of Asset Pricing and Quantitative Methods at the Sapienza University of Rome, Chairman of the Euro Working Group for Financial Modelling, Independent Counselor on the Boards of Directors of banking institutions such as Banco BPM and, since May 2020, Vice-Chairman of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. (1) The simple investment company, introduced by a government Decree also named “Growth Decree” (Law-Decree no. 34 of April 30th, 2019), converted with amendments by Law no. 58/2019, as a streamlined vehicle aimed at raising private capital to boost innovation through Venture Capital, is a new entity for collective investment of savings, part of the alternative investment funds, and in the form of investment companies with fixed capital. The company is allowed to raise resources up to a maximum of 25m, for investments in unlisted small- and medium-sized enterprises that are still in the testing, establishment and start-up phases. (2) Davide Fioranelli is co-founder and Non-Executive Director of Freetrade in London, a zero commission financial stock broker that allows users to buy free shares and ETFs in a few steps directly from the smartphone. Today Freetrade has raised around £30m, is supported by Draper Esprit, has a team of more than 80 people and around 200,000 active users.24/07/2020
