Black Sheep Fund exceeds all expectations and collects 40 million euro with its first closing. This is the first European investment fund, closed and reserved, specialized in the MadTech (marketing and advertising technologies) or which invests in companies with high technological potential capable of seizing the various opportunities offered by the technological revolution underway in the marketing industry. Inflows continue towards the target of 70 million euro.
A unique project in the panorama of investment funds, as launched by veteran entrepreneurs and managers in the sector, who are also the first private investors of the fund: Umberto Bottesini, Marco Caradonna and Sandro Moretti.
The project has aroused the interest of numerous investors, starting with CDP Venture Capital SGR, which participated through its FoF VenturItaly fund of funds and with the MiSE co-investment fund, managed by the same. Furthermore, a significant part of the collection of this first closing comes from leading companies in the marketing sector in Italy and in Europe, which see in BlackSheep not only a financial investment, but also an open innovation method to answer strategic questions related to their business .
The BlackSheep venture capital fund is managed by EUREKA! Venture SGR, which last year already launched an innovative fund dedicated to technology transfer, and which now with BlackSheep increases its scope and enriches its management: Sandro Moretti (keyman of the BlackSheep team) has been co-opted to the Board of Directors of the SGR , and a dedicated Investment Committee composed of all team members was set up.
Therefore, from this moment on the activity of the Fund comes alive and in the next few weeks it will launch i first investments, after selecting the companies able to respond to the new demands of the marketing and advertising market. The Fund's targets are Italian and European companies that have developed new generation software to make the processes associated with the brand-consumer relationship simpler, more effective and automatic.
BlackSheep mainly invests in companies that have already passed the stage of "start-up” and now need resources for growth and international scale. Against a qualified minority stake, the fund provides portfolio companies not only with the economic resources to develop a shared growth plan, but also with those skills, managerial experience and industrial relations that make BlackSheep and its team a real competitive advantage.
“I have always defined BlackSheep as a “reverse fund”, in which the content (the industrial project in our sector) was born first and only then the form (the VC fund). With the rest of the BlackSheep team and in the same spirit, 15 years ago, we tried to change some rules of the digital marketing services world, and we were successful. With the same team (that if it wins, it doesn't change) we want to seize the new opportunity that this market offers: based on data, technological, and European. But this is a marathon, and we're at the first kilometer: now comes the fun part,” he said Sandro Moretti, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BlackSheep Ventures.
Stephen Peroncini, CEO of EUREKA! Venture SGR, added: “BlackSheep's very rapid start-up consolidates EUREKA's entrepreneurial vision! Venture SGR, which – just one year after the launch of the first FIA “Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer” – aims to become a reference operator in the Private Capital industry in the coming years with a plurality of alternative assets under management. The BlackSheep Team shares with Eureka! the passion for technology and the impact that a conscious use of it can have on people's daily lives and well-being”.
Blacksheep certainly represents a great opportunity for the most innovative companies, which expand the range of action of already existing managers "because they demonstrate how differentiating and always looking for new growth and market paths is in the DNA of the entire Italian innovation chain ", commented Enrico Remini, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of CDP Venture Capital SGR.
Finally, for CDP Venture Capital Sgr the transaction was followed by Cristina Bini e Giacomo Valentini, respectively Manager and Partner of FoF VenturItaly, e Martin Rocca, Investment Manager. While the closing of the fund was handled by lawyers A. Venturini e A. Horn by the Alma STA studio.
