United Ventures

💭 What if the software running our cars, factories, and even spacecraft could protect itself? That’s the vision driving Gianni Cuozzo and his team at Exein, one of Europe’s fastest-growing deeptech startups, scaling at 450% year-on-year. With 1.5 billion+ devices already secured, offices in Italy, Germany, the US, and Taiwan, and €93 million raised from leading European investors, Exein is redefining how cybersecurity is built — from the inside out. 🎙️ In this special Made IT Podcast episode, recorded during Italian Tech Week, Gianni discuss with Inès Makula his vision for a world powered by open collaboration, European deeptech ambition, and technology that’s self-protecting by design. 📺 Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gQP7Yppr 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/da8Kycnr #UVportfolio

Yesterday we hosted our Investor Day, a special moment to connect with our LPs and share how our portfolio construction reflects our company culture. The day concluded with a memorable dinner in one of Milan’s most iconic venues, held as a side event of 0100 International by Zero One Hundred Conferences, now in its third year of collaboration with United Ventures. The event brought together leading LPs and GPs to exchange perspectives on the future of venture capital. These conversations matter: venture capital helps startups grow globally, reach new markets, and attract top talent. By doing so, we’re not only supporting individual companies but also strengthening Italy’s role in the global innovation ecosystem — where technology and entrepreneurship drive growth, job creation, and long-term competitiveness, while delivering solid, sustainable returns for our investors. Thanks to everyone who joined us, and a special thanks to our speakers Beniamino Pagliaro, Matteo Bogana, Luca Forni, Renato Panesi, Simone Di Somma, Daniele Panfilo, PhD, and Marco Ramilli, PhD. #venturecapital

You know your portfolio company is on the right track when it’s selected from thousands of startups to join the Gemini Founders Forum, an exclusive gathering where leaders of today’s most innovative Series A startups engage in forward-thinking dialogue with top AI experts from Google 🤯 The forum, an initiative by Google for Startups in partnership with DeepMind and Google Cloud, brings together in Mountain View founders who are making AI a core pillar of their growth strategy. It facilitates a high-caliber, collaborative exploration of the practical application and strategic integration of AI in building transformative companies 🧠 Congratulations Marco Ramilli, PhD and the extraordinary team of engineers, data analysts, and developers you’ve brought together at identifAI Labs, bringing strength, transparency, and speed to a challenge that spans from Europe to the entire AI ecosystem. See the full cohort here: https://lnkd.in/gJWU2q2y

“Software has eaten the world. Now it must pilot it.” Deploying AI into the physical world is still slow and fragmented. Every robot, sensor, or machine speaks a different language, forcing companies to build costly, one-off integrations that make automation rigid and inaccessible. That’s the problem Cyberwave is solving 🤖 Founded by Simone Di Somma and Vittorio Banfi, two rockstar founders with a rare mix of technical depth and product vision, Cyberwave is building the operating layer between AI and the physical world — a platform that makes automation programmable, scalable, and developer-first. Think of it as the GitHub of robotics: a unified infrastructure layer that lets developers orchestrate machines and robots through digital twins and just a few lines of code. From Milan, Zurich, and San Francisco, the team is building globally from day one; close to Europe’s manufacturing excellence, rooted in robotics precision, and connected to the world’s fastest-moving AI ecosystem. We’re proud to lead Cyberwave’s €7M funding round, alongside The Techshop SGR, Vento, Pi Campus, and a group of exceptional angel investors. The next industrial revolution will be written in code — and Cyberwave is building the platform to make it real 🦾 Read Simone’s interview in Sifted — thanks to Tom Nugent for breaking the story — and head to our blog to learn more about why we invested (links in comments) cc Massimiliano Magrini Paolo Gesess Jacopo Drudi Matteo Moscarelli

✨ It was a pleasure to join the panel at Italian Tech Week and share my perspective on how data is not just fuel anymore — it has become the foundation of defensibility for products and companies. At United Ventures, we see data as the strategic layer where defensibility and long-term value are built: “If data has always been fuel, AI is now turning it into the engine itself. The most exciting startups today don’t just collect data — they monetize it responsibly, structure it, and make it defensible.” 👉 No data, no party. 🇮🇹 Italy has the talent to lead this transformation — we just need the ecosystem to match. A big thank you to the moderator Virginia Giammaria and my fellow panelists — Carlo Rossi Chauvenet, and Chiara Petrioli — for such an inspiring discussion.

"Good was not enough for us to be taken seriously from a tech point of view, we had to be perfect" Gianni Cuozzo Exein

You must keep an eye on what’s happening in Italy! 🇮🇹   Thanks to Sifted for asking me about the 4 best Italian startups to watch that are not part of our United Ventures portfolio. My picks: Ephos, Smartness, Waveful and compri. Congrats also to: Complaion, Pillar, Zefi.ai and Pack.   More mature EU ecosystems (UK, France, Germany) are cool but we are getting there. In Italy we’ve always had extraordinary talent but we lacked the ambition to build global champions. Things have been changing quickly.    We have everything: 🏛️ Prestigious universities that excel in research: Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Sapienza Università di Roma, Università di Pisa etc. 💰 Capital, VC funding is increasing rapidly with new funds, international top-tier VCs and established local players growing their fund sizes  🚀 Tech success cases and exits: Bending Spoons, Musixmatch, Satispay, Translated, Exein, Fiscozen and many more.   In the words of Steve Jobs: “Stay hungry, stay foolish”, because we are building the italian economy of tomorrow. PS. See you all in Turin soon for the best European tech conference. Link in the first comment.

✨ A new chapter for digital health in Italy Last week, at the Sala Zuccari of the Senate of the Republic, Aindo convened institutions, researchers, and policymakers to discuss the first comprehensive national AI legislation — approved just hours after the event. The conversation, moderated by Massimo Sideri, centered on: - the reuse of health data for AI as a matter of public interest, - the recognition of synthetic data as a legitimate tool to accelerate research, strengthen prevention, and make our healthcare smarter. This marks a true paradigm shift placing Italy at the forefront of responsible #AI adoption in healthcare, while unlocking unprecedented opportunities for clinical research and innovation 🔬🩺 We’re proud to see portfolio companies like Aindo shaping this dialogue at the highest institutional level and contributing to a future where technology serves both science and society. cc Daniele Panfilo, PhD; Davide Ruffo; Giulia Giovannini