Eureka! Venture Launches €20M Fund to Support Italy’s DeepTech Startups

Milan-based Eureka! Venture has announced the launch of Eureka! Fund II – Deep Tech Lazio, a €20 million early-stage fund focused on investing in startups from the proof-of-concept (PoC) and pre-Seed stages through to Seed and other early funding rounds.

The fund will be managed by Lazio Innova, which is also serving as the anchor investor with a €16 million commitment.

“With our first fund, we demonstrated that Italy possesses proprietary technologies capable of meeting the needs of industry and the market, even at an international level. With Eureka! Fund II, we remain committed to this vision and, thanks to our partnership with Lazio Innova, we aim to attract new investors to DeepTech – a strategic asset class that is still under-represented in Italian investors’ portfolios.

“The new fund, in fact, features an innovative and unique mechanism for the asymmetric allocation of profits and losses to the benefit of private investors, which represents an important tool for reducing barriers to entry and, over time, helping to build a broader base of private capital dedicated to innovation,” says Stefano Peroncini, Chief Executive of Eureka! Venture SGR.

Eureka! Fund II is entering a European DeepTech market that has remained active in 2026, with several notable funding rounds across Italy.

EU-Startups has reported funding of €3.6 million for Puglia-based Physical AI startup Mirai Robotics, €5 million for Pisa-based Wearable Robotics, €14 million for Milan-based seismic technology company ISAAC, €11.8 million for critical-materials specialist Circular Materials, and €5 million for Turin-based wireless-power startup ORiS.

Lazio has also seen major DeepTech activity. In September, Rome-based Physical AI cybersecurity company Exein announced a €234 million financing, although the round was at a considerably later stage than the investments targeted by Eureka! Fund II.

Across Europe, Barcelona-based industrial robotics company THEKER raised €73 million, while Finland’s Hyperion Robotics secured €6.4 million for its Physical AI infrastructure technology. Germany-based alqem raised €8 million for AI-powered materials discovery, while Zürich-based ZuriQ secured €22.4 million to scale its quantum processor technology.

Taken together, these 2026 startup financings represent approximately €383 million in funding.

The European DeepTech fund landscape has also seen activity, including 360 Capital’s €85 million first closing of Poli360 2, an Italy-focused DeepTech technology-transfer fund, and Elaia’s €134 million DeepTech Seed fund.

Eureka! Venture has also featured in previous EU-Startups coverage through investments made by Eureka! Fund I, including its backing of Astradyne’s €2 million raise in 2025. The new €20 million Lazio fund therefore builds on the firm’s earlier work supporting technology-transfer and DeepTech startups.

“Through our investment in Eureka! Venture, we are consolidating a investment model in Lazio that is specifically geared towards maximising the value of research and proprietary technologies, involving one of the leading national operators to be active in this field. The incorporation into the regional venture capital platform of specialist expertise in DeepTech and technology transfer processes not only expands the tools available to the regional ecosystem but also helps to create an increasingly effective link between research, business and the market,” adds Andrea Ciampalini, Director-General of Lazio Innova.

Founded in 2019, Eureka! Venture is an independent asset management firm supervised by the Bank of Italy and Consob. The company specialises in venture capital and private equity investments.

So far, Eureka! Venture has raised more than €190 million across several funds, including:

• Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer: Focused on technology transfer in advanced materials, working with universities and scientific research centres.
• BlackSheep Fund: Invests in software technologies for the marketing and advertising sectors.
• Eureka! Fund II – Deep Tech Lazio: Focused on DeepTech investments.
• Z_One Fund: Targets AI and UrbanTech opportunities.
• ETA Fund: Supports SMEs through the search fund model.

Eureka! Fund II – Deep Tech Lazio follows Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer, which was launched in 2020. The new fund builds on Eureka! Venture’s experience in backing proprietary technologies with strong scientific and technological foundations while expanding its investment focus.

The fund will support spin-offs, startups, and innovative SMEs at early and development stages, with particular attention to industrial validation, industrialisation, and business growth.

Its investment strategy focuses on proprietary technologies, intellectual property, scientific expertise, and hardware and software solutions with high barriers to entry. The fund aims to support companies developing innovative products and processes, entering international markets, and strengthening Europe’s technological competitiveness.

The fund will target strategic sectors including climate change and the energy transition, sustainability and the circular economy, advanced industry and manufacturing, mobility, infrastructure and logistics, security and defence, as well as longevity and the silver economy.

Its investment strategy also covers STEP Technologies, supporting the European goal of strengthening technological competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy. Key areas include advanced manufacturing and robotics, AI and Physical AI, quantum technologies, and materials science.

“With Eureka! Fund II, we are taking a further step towards consolidating our investment focus on DeepTech and technology transfer, building on the experience gained with our first fund and broadening its scope to include strategic, high-potential technologies such as Physical AI.

“Lazio offers a particularly favourable environment, thanks to the quality of its scientific research, the presence of world-class technological expertise and a well-developed industrial base,” says Anna Amati, Partner at Eureka! Venture SGR.

The fund will also conduct scouting activities across Italy, focusing on companies that already have, or plan to establish, an active presence in Lazio. The aim is to support the growth of the region’s innovation ecosystem while attracting new technologies, expertise, businesses, and investment capital to Lazio.