CRIF invests in the Neva First Fund, a strategic partnership promoting start-up investments

CRIF, a global company specializing in business and credit information systems, and advanced digital solutions for business development and open banking, has invested in the Neva First Fund, the venture capital fund managed by Neva SGR, with the aim of supporting investments in innovative high-tech start-ups.

The Neva First Fund was set up for innovative high-tech start-ups with a global reach and operating with prospects for exponential growth, with unique and innovative qualities in terms of know-how and with business management and leadership strongly focused on implementing business plans.

Neva SGR has the support of the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and the financial resources, know-how and business network of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.

CRIF, which has well-established and recognized expertise in innovation and cutting-edge digital technologies applied to the financial market, will contribute with its own direct experience, offering the Fund its point of view on areas most related to its core business (from open banking to credit, the use of data-driven dimensions in new service models, and enabling technologies).

The businesses that the Fund looks at are highly innovative national and international companies, which fall into particularly promising sectors, ranging from Fintech to artificial intelligence, from blockchain to cybersecurity, and from agritech to the green economy. Areas in which CRIF has distinctive skills that bring added value to Neva SGR in terms of the potential performance and acceleration of investments.

“For CRIF, entry into the Intesa Sanpaolo Fintech Innovation Fund gives us a privileged point of observation of the evolving trends in the financial business, as well as directly leveraging our core expertise, thanks to the high level of expertise offered by the team,” commented Silvia Ghielmetti, General Manager of CRIF.

“With our contribution, the start-ups identified by the Fund will be a driving force for innovation and represent businesses with a strong impact on the domestic and international economic and industrial context, an area where CRIF has strong expertise,” explained Elena Mazzotti, Head of Innovation & Strategy at CRIF.

Neva SGR is the product factory of Intesa Sanpaolo Group dedicated to the design and management of closed-end funds investing in non-listed Italian companies focused on global growth areas and non-listed international companies with collaboration and growth programs relating to the Italian economic and production system. Neva SGR is controlled by the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group company dedicated to the search for new global trends and to supporting businesses in the transformation toward digital and the circular economy.