Italian government-owned venture capital fund manager Invitalia has achieved a new close for its Italia Venture I fund at €65m ($74.5m) following contributions from corporates Cisco and Metec.
Invitalia Ventures is the investment arm of Italy’s National Agency for the Attraction of Investments and Enterprise Development.
Italia Venture I was established in October 2015 and secured an initial €50m from the country’s Economic Development Ministry. It has a final target of €100m.
The additional capital comes from networking equipment producer Cisco, metal manufacturer Metec and non-profit foundation Fondazione di Sardegna, each of which contributed €5m to the fund.
Cisco set up a $100m, three-year initiative Italy in January 2016 to invest in local technology startups and offer training to both students and teachers through its Cisco Networking Academy.
At the time, Cisco was revealed to have teamed up with Invitalia Ventures to identify potential investees, but it has now been confirmed that the company injected cash into the fund.
The fund has already begun investing, and has funded two companies so far: medical technology developer D-Eye and peer-to-peer commercial credit platform Sardex. D-Eye attracted €1.5m from Invitalia Ventures, Innogest, Fondazione Cottino, Si14 and select company managers in January 2016.
Sardex raised €3m in an April 2016 funding round led by Innogest. Invitalia Ventures, Banca Sella Holding, Fondazione di Sardegna, Nice Group and Melpart also participated.
Italia Venture I is led by chief executive Salvo Mizzi, who was previously CEO of Tim Ventures, the corporate venturing division of telecommunications firm Telecom Italia, until June 2015.
– A version of this story originally appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing