NVM Ventures has officially launched with the announcement of a €23.6 million first close for the NVM Venture Lazio compartment. The compartment aims to build a portfolio of 10–15 dual-use companies at pre-Seed and Seed stage working in STEP Technologies.
The fund was established on the initiative of Andrea Bonabello and Niccolò Bienati, founding partners and Board Members of Ulixes Capital Lux, who lead its strategic direction. They are joined by the Fund Managers Giorgio Gulienetti and Alessandro Casiraghi, who serve as key persons for the NVM Venture Lazio compartment.
“Institutional investors are rediscovering emerging managers. According to the IPEM Allocation and Fundraising Trend Report 2027, 88% of Limited Partners are now interested in managers raising their first, second or third fund, up from 65% the year before, and 64% are willing to commit to a Fund I.
“This interest is also driven by strong results: research conducted in the United States by the National Association of Investment Companies found that emerging manager programmes outperformed by 700 basis points. NVM Ventures was created to meet this demand in Italy, with the goal of fostering a new generation of capable, ambitious managers who currently struggle to raise their first fund.”says Andrea Bonabello, founding partner and Board Member of Ulixes Capital Lux, General Partner of NVM Ventures.
Key investors include Lazio Innova, which committed €18.83 million through Lazio Venture 2, the Lazio Region’s fund of funds co-financed by the ERDF Regional Programme 2021–2027, under which the new compartment was selected.
This launch comes amid increased investment into European defence, dual-use and strategic DeepTech.
EU-Startups has tracked approximately €1.73 billion across ten relevant defence and dual-use company financings in 2026, spanning autonomous systems, space, cybersecurity, drone defence and advanced materials.
Italy has been part of this activity: Puglia-based Mirai Robotics raised €3.6 million for dual-use maritime autonomy, Turin-based ORiS secured €5 million for space and dual-use wireless power technology, while Rome-based Physical AI cybersecurity company Exein raised €234 million while reaching unicorn status.
Lazio Innova has also already backed another specialist vehicle this year, committing €16 million to the €20 million Eureka! Fund II – Deep Tech Lazio, which similarly targets early-stage STEP and DeepTech companies.
“With NVM Venture Lazio, we are further expanding the specialist expertise in dual-use frontier technologies within the regional venture capital platform. Investing in a first-time fund also reflects our commitment to backing emerging managers with distinctive skills, helping build new professional and investment capabilities for the benefit of the entire ecosystem.” adds Andrea Ciampalini, Director General of Lazio Innova.
NVM Venture Lazio invests in DeepTech startups with dual-use applications. Its core sectors include aerospace, maritime, robotics and autonomous systems, cybersecurity, AI for defence, energy infrastructure, new materials, advanced manufacturing and biotechnology.
The multi-compartment structure allows NVM Ventures to pair each investment thesis with a specialist investment team, while giving emerging fund managers a shared institutional framework for governance, risk management and compliance
The fund says Lazio is the only Italian region that hosts the entire aerospace value chain, from research to manufacturing to services. According to Lazio Region data, more than 300 companies with around 23,000 employees operate in advanced technologies across the region, generating annual revenues of over €5 billion, including €1.6 billion in exports.
This concentration of research, talent, industry and institutions creates a real opportunity to turn technologies born in labs and research programmes into companies capable of scaling very quickly.
NVM Venture Lazio steps in at the most delicate stage for a DeepTech startup: the move from technology validation to product development, and from first customer to industrialisation.