Kairos completes its first closing of the Kairos Ventures ESG One fund at 10 millions Euro
THE VENTURE CAPITAL FUND CLOSED THE FIRST INVESTMENT IN THE MEDTECH START-UP ENDOSTART
THE FUNDING TARGET IS CONFIRMED AT 100 MILLION
THE FUND HAS IN PIPELINE FIVE FURTHER INVESTMENTS BY THE END OF THE YEAR
Kairos, an asset and wealth management Group, announces it has completed the first closing of the Kairos Ventures ESG One fund at €10 million. At the same time Kairos closed its first investment aimed at supporting the growth of Endostart, a Tuscan start-up founded in 2018, which has developed an endoscopic platform for the treatment of incomplete colonoscopies based on Magnetic Balloon Anchoring Technology (MBAT).
The fund attracted the interest of a small group of investors already familiar with the venture capital industry (friends&family), as well as securing the commitment of the fund’s managers, Roberto Zanco and Elisa Schembari, and some Kairos’s partners. In addition to the first investment in Endostart, the fund is in advanced talks to close a second investment in another life-science company: Beta Glue Technologies, which has designed an advanced radiotherapy platform for intratumorally treatments. The fund also confirms the objective of reaching a funding target of €100 million and achieving other four investments in innovative start-ups and SMEs – early and late stage – in the blockchain, new space economy and energy sectors by the end of 2022.
The launch of Kairos Ventures ESG One fund in December 2021 marked Kairos’s official debut in the venture capital market, with the aim of further diversifying its investment strategy and strengthening its positioning in the illiquid alternative asset segment. Thanks to Kairos’ in-depth knowledge of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric and the experience of the fund’s management team in the world of tech start-ups, Kairos Ventures ESG One is able to partner with entrepreneurs alongside their strategic growth path, mainly signed by M&A operations, sales agreements to industrial or financial players, as well as IPOs.
Roberto Zanco, Head of Alternative Illiquid Investments and Key Partner of Kairos Ventures ESG One fund, commented: “We are truly satisfied of reaching this first important milestone within the timeframe estimated at the launch of the project. The interest we got and we are still receiving from institutional and private investors, as well as from entrepreneurs who are sharing with us their projects, confirms that this is the right time in Italy to continue investing in venture capital, as an efficient asset class to achieve a more diversified portfolio. This is even truer in light of the strong acceleration in digital transformation, healthcare and sustainability, areas in which many innovative SMEs and Italian start-ups are excelling. We would like to thank all the investors who have chosen to support us in this new project, in particular the partners of Kairos who have committed to supporting us, confirming the total alignment of interests between the management and our investors”.
Elisa Schembari, Key Partner of Kairos Ventures ESG One, said: “We strongly believe in the growth potential of Endostart, a start-up that owns all the characteristics we look for in our investments: technological innovation, a highly skilled management team and an ambitious investment plan. Endostart has created some technologically innovative solutions able to grant a benefit to millions of patients in the digestive endoscopy field, a fast-growing sector that is constantly seeking for innovative solutions and where we see interesting exit opportunities. Then there is sustainability, which we believe is a key success driver for today’s and, above all, companies of the future: in addition to financial targets and the potential return on our investments, we look at the impact that the companies in our portfolio can have on environmental, social and governance issues”.