Saturday, November 8, 2014

Espresso Group's Digital Division and Innogest SGR launch REinventures to back Italian Digital Startups


Rome, 5th November 2014 - Espresso Group's Digital Division and Innogest SGR launch REinventures, strategic alliance in the field of venture capital in order to finance and develop startups in the digital sector. REinventures will enhance innovative business initiatives by integrating, with a model without precedent in Italy, the experience of Innogest SGR - the leading Italian Venture Capital fund - with the publishing and multimedia expertise of Gruppo Espresso.

REinventures will provide selected startups with both financial resources and an average visibility and expertise to develop innovative digital products and services. The digital know-how and visibility offered by the Espresso Group and its newspapers will be crucial in accelerating the growth of the selected startups. Innogest SGR will also contribute to the creation of business opportunities for startups to raise capital overseas and to develop the management team.

Assisting entrepreneurs in the transition from an idea or from a small company to a global player by size is a quite difficult mission. Make extraordinary growth happen outside the US, China and a few other virtuous ecosystems in the world is even more difficult. We need capital, industry expertise, network of relevant people. If a primary group as the Espresso Group comes into play with the strength of its competences as well as of its size, and forms an alliance with the leading Italian operator in the venture capital space, then we are heading in the direction of providing business owners and startups the right resources to make a path of excellence and compete in the global arena. 

REinventures has an initial endowment of € 10 million to be invested over five years. The investment strategy involves
the identification of opportunities in various sectors and at different stages of development, from ''early-stage" to "late stage".

With its digital business, the Espresso Group's mission is to provide its great brands with
a presence of absolute excellence, deploying them on all platforms at highest potential by providing services and products for PC, Mobile, Tablet and Net TV. The distribution strategy will differ by platform and includes both the free and premium model. The specificity of the information needs of the reader on the various platforms and value maximization in the long run lead, from time to time, the choice of the supply model.

Innogest is the market leader in the Italian Venture Capital landscape whose mission is to promote Italian technology and entrepreneurship by building high-growth companies. Since 2007 it has invested in 25 Italian high-tech companies with the ambition to become global players. Innogest currently manages over €160 million ($200 million), dedicated to investments in start-ups and innovative SMEs at different phases of seed, early stage and late stage. In addition to providing the first capital Innogest assists companies in raising additional finance in the global markets, finding business opportunities, and to develop their own management team.