Innogest

Founder Claudio Giuliano leads the investment committee as Managing Partner. The firm's Torino-based senior team operates with a flat structure typical of small venture partnerships — Giuliano and his partners evaluate deals collectively and typically join portfolio boards post-investment to maintain direct governance oversight of their concentrated portfolios.

Innogest concentrates on four core sectors: digital health, enterprise software, fintech, and industrial tech. The firm avoids broad generalism and has passed on popular Italian consumer-tech plays in favor of B2B and regulated-industry startups. This focus reflects a conviction that Italian technical talent clusters in these verticals and that exit paths are more predictable than in consumer internet.

Many Italian venture firms launched after 2018 operate with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti as a cornerstone LP through the government's Fondo Nazionale Innovazione. Innogest predates that wave by more than a decade and has raised capital primarily from private institutional investors and family offices without a government anchor. That independence forces fee discipline and alignment with net returns — the firm cannot rely on subsidized management fees.

Innogest typically leads or co-leads seed and Series A rounds, reflecting a deliberate posture of building conviction rather than following. The firm has co-invested alongside other European early-stage managers when portfolio companies expand into markets like the UK or Germany, but its primary model is to anchor rounds and join the board rather than act as a passive syndicate participant.

Innogest takes board seats in the majority of its portfolio companies and maintains an operator-heavy involvement style. Claudio Giuliano and his partners work directly with founding teams on product-market fit and go-to-market execution — a model that emerged from necessity in a market where experienced startup operators are scarce. The firm does not view passive minority investing as viable in Italian early-stage.