Z_One Fund Hits €35M First Close for Italian AI, UrbanTech

TL;DR

Z_One Fund, a new pre-seed and seed vehicle managed by Milan-based Eureka! Venture SGR, has closed over €35 million toward a €60 million target and started investing in Italian AI applications and urbantech startups. CDP Venture Capital SGR anchored the close as the first deployment from its newly launched Fondo Acceleratori 2, alongside Euronext-listed Zest, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, and a group of unnamed private investors. The fund plans up to 100 investments of as much as €250,000 each, with selective follow-ons reserved for the companies that earn them, and runs a parallel Lazio-focused sister vehicle backed by regional development agency Lazio Innova. It's the second specialized fund Eureka! Venture has launched this year, and together with its existing deep tech vehicle it points to a genuine multi-strategy platform forming around one Milan manager.

Key Takeaways

CDP Venture Capital is testing a new accelerator-fund model through this deal. Z_One is the first investment out of Fondo Acceleratori 2, CDP's newer vehicle for backing accelerator-adjacent fund managers rather than running accelerators directly. That's a meaningful structural choice: Italy's state-owned innovation investor is betting that specialized private managers with deep operating history, rather than CDP's own accelerator network, are the better way to get capital to pre-seed founders at scale.

The GP team is a direct product of the Zest-Eureka tie-up. Luigi Capello stepped down as CEO of Zest in July to lead Z_One, bringing Giulio Montoli and Giulia Fazzini, both former Zest investors, with him. Zest bought 20% of Eureka! Venture in October 2025, and this fund is the clearest evidence yet of what that stake was actually for: moving an experienced acceleration team and its deal flow into a dedicated institutional fund rather than keeping it inside the accelerator.

A €250,000 average check with real reserves for winners is a disciplined construction for 100 bets. Spreading a €60 million target across up to 100 companies at that ticket size leaves meaningful dry powder for the follow-ons the fund says it will concentrate selectively on milestone-hitting portfolio companies, which is a more defensible portfolio-construction model than either a pure spray-and-pray micro-fund or an overconcentrated handful of large seed checks.

Eureka! Venture is quietly assembling a specialized-fund platform, not just raising one fund at a time. Z_One (AI and urbantech) now sits alongside Eureka! Fund II - Deep Tech Lazio (climate, advanced manufacturing, robotics, physical AI, quantum, materials, defense-adjacent, which Fund Momentum covered at its own €20 million first close), plus the firm's BlackSheep MadTech and ETA search-fund vehicles. Running several thesis-specific funds under one manager, each with its own GP team and LP base, is a structurally different bet than running one generalist fund, and it's becoming a more common model among Italy's more ambitious managers.

Fund Overview

Fund Name: Z_One Fund (plus a parallel sister vehicle, Z_One Fund Lazio)
Fund Size: €60 million target; more than €35 million closed so far
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Check Size: Initial tickets of up to €250,000, with selective follow-on capital (reported elsewhere as up to €1 million) reserved for companies hitting growth milestones
Geography: Italy-based startups, with an explicit mandate to help portfolio companies expand across Europe
Focus: AI applications (financial services, retail, public administration, digital security, frontier AI) and urbantech/smart cities (efficient buildings, connected and electric mobility, water and waste management, public-space regeneration)
Key LPs: CDP Venture Capital SGR (via Fondo Acceleratori 2), Zest, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Lazio Innova (through the parallel Lazio vehicle), and other unnamed private investors. Individual commitment amounts have not been disclosed by the fund; one trade report put Zest's commitment at roughly €5 million, which Fund Momentum has not independently confirmed.

Why This Fund Matters

Italy's pre-seed market has long had more founders with real technical ideas than institutional capital willing to write a first check before a startup has much to show. A €60 million fund purpose-built for pre-seed and seed, with a 100-company portfolio target, is a meaningful attempt to widen that funnel rather than compete for the same later-stage deals every generalist fund in Milan is also chasing.

The CDP Venture Capital angle is the part worth watching longer-term. Fondo Acceleratori 2 backing Z_One as its first deployment signals that Italy's state innovation investor is shifting part of its accelerator strategy toward funding experienced private managers rather than running programs itself. If that model works, expect CDP to replicate it with other specialized teams, which would mean more of Italy's public innovation capital flowing through professional fund managers instead of government-run accelerator cohorts.

The Zest relationship is also a useful data point for how consolidation is starting to work in the Italian startup ecosystem. Rather than Zest and Eureka! staying as separate accelerator and fund-manager businesses, Zest took an equity stake in Eureka!, then sent its own CEO and two of its investors across to run a new fund inside it. That's a tighter structural integration between an accelerator and a fund manager than is typical in most markets, and it gives Z_One's portfolio companies a built-in acceleration pipeline through Zest rather than a bolt-on partnership.

The Lazio parallel vehicle is a smaller but genuinely useful piece of the story. Funded through the region's Lazio Venture 2 initiative under the EU's PR FESR 2021-2027 programme and managed by Lazio Innova, it extends Z_One's exact strategy to Lazio-connected startups. Combined with Eureka!'s existing Lazio-focused deep tech fund, that's now two separate regional vehicles anchored by the same public development agency, inside the same manager's platform, which suggests Lazio Innova has found a model it's comfortable scaling rather than a one-off commitment.

The Team

Luigi Capello leads Z_One Fund as partner. He spent more than a decade building a listed startup accelerator in Rome that became Zest, and stepped down as Zest's CEO in July 2026 specifically to run this fund, which makes Z_One as much a continuation of his acceleration career as a new chapter.

Giulio Montoli joins as partner, having built his career in acceleration and pre-seed investing and having led management of one of Italy's largest startup portfolios before moving to Z_One. Giulia Fazzini joins as junior partner; she's described in coverage as one of the youngest women to hold a partner-level role at an Italian VC firm. Both Montoli and Fazzini were Zest investors before joining Capello on this fund.

Across their time together, the trio is credited with more than 340 investments, more than 25 exits, and over €80 million under management, with named deals including FitPrime, Robot.com, JetHR, Vikey, and 2Hire. The fund itself sits under Eureka! Venture SGR, led by CEO Stefano Peroncini, a Bank of Italy and Consob-regulated manager that has raised a combined figure above €190 million across its multi-strategy fund platform.

What This Means for Founders

If you're building an AI-applications or urbantech company in Italy at the pre-seed or seed stage, Z_One is actively writing checks up to €250,000 right now, with real follow-on capital set aside for companies that hit their milestones rather than a one-and-done check. The team's acceleration pedigree through Zest means founders should expect structured, hands-on support (mentorship, corporate access, proof-of-concept help) alongside the capital, not just a wire transfer.

Founders connected to the Lazio region specifically should look at the parallel Z_One Fund Lazio vehicle, which runs the identical strategy with public development-agency backing behind it. Given CDP Venture Capital's involvement as an LP, portfolio companies likely also get a path into CDP's broader Rete Nazionale Acceleratori network for additional support as they scale toward a Series A.

Fund Momentum Take

What stands out about Z_One isn't the fund size, €35 million at first close against a €60 million target is a solid but unremarkable number for an Italian pre-seed vehicle, it's the structural story underneath it. A listed accelerator's CEO and two of its investors spinning out into a dedicated fund, backed by the accelerator's own new 20% shareholder as an LP, with a state innovation investor testing a new accelerator-funding model through the same deal, is a more interesting piece of market architecture than most first-close announcements.

The thing we'd flag as a real risk rather than a reflexive one: running up to 100 investments across two broad theses (AI applications and urbantech) with a three-person GP team is an ambitious sourcing and diligence load, even with Zest's acceleration infrastructure behind it. The fund's actual differentiation will show up in whether Capello, Montoli, and Fazzini can maintain real diligence depth at that volume, or whether the structure ends up leaning hard on Zest's acceleration programming to do the heavy lifting that a smaller, more concentrated fund would do through direct GP involvement.

Our bet is that this closes at or above the €60 million target given CDP's anchor role and the built-in Lazio co-investment structure, and that Eureka! Venture's multi-fund platform model, now spanning deep tech, AI/urbantech, MadTech, and search funds, becomes a more explicit talking point for the firm as it continues raising. A manager running several thesis-specific vehicles under one regulatory and operational roof is a genuinely different animal from a single-fund shop, and worth tracking as its own category.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Z_One Fund and who manages it?
Z_One Fund is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund targeting €60 million, managed by Eureka! Venture SGR, a Milan-based, Bank of Italy and Consob-regulated asset manager. It has closed more than €35 million so far and has begun investing.

What does Z_One Fund invest in?
Two sectors: AI applications (financial services, retail, public administration, digital security, and frontier AI) and urbantech/smart cities (efficient buildings, connected and electric mobility, water and waste management, and public-space regeneration), with initial checks of up to €250,000 and selective follow-on capital for milestone-hitting companies.

Who are the fund's main investors?
CDP Venture Capital SGR, investing through its newly launched Fondo Acceleratori 2 (this is that vehicle's first deployment), Euronext-listed Zest, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, and a number of undisclosed private investors. Lazio Innova backs a separate, parallel vehicle rather than the main fund directly.

Who runs Z_One Fund day to day?
Partner Luigi Capello, who previously ran the Rome-based accelerator that became Zest, leads the fund alongside partner Giulio Montoli and junior partner Giulia Fazzini, both former Zest investors. All three joined Eureka! Venture SGR to launch this vehicle.

How does Z_One Fund relate to Eureka! Venture's other funds?
Eureka! Venture SGR also manages Eureka! Fund II - Deep Tech Lazio, a separate €20 million early-stage deep tech vehicle with a different GP team and thesis, plus BlackSheep (MadTech) and ETA (search funds). Z_One is a distinct, newly launched fund within that broader multi-strategy platform, not a rebrand or continuation of the deep tech fund.

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