CDP Venture Capital and Scientifica launch EUR 27.5 million SophIA hub

Italy's national innovation fund CDP Venture Capital has committed EUR 27.5 million to launch SophIA, a new deeptech hub built together with Scientifica Venture Capital to turn scientific research into viable businesses.

The initial EUR 27.5 million comes from CDP Venture Capital's Technology Transfer and Artificial Intelligence Fund, according to Telecompaper. The money will back more than 20 ventures over the next three years.

SophIA will focus on the earliest and riskiest points of the startup pipeline. The hub plans to support companies at proof-of-concept, pre-seed and seed stages — the phases where Italian research spinouts have historically struggled to find capital.

The structure pairs a state-backed investor with a private-sector specialist. CDP Venture Capital, the venture arm of Italy's Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group, brings the capital and the national mandate. Scientifica Venture Capital brings the deeptech focus. Together they will select, fund and nurture the cohort of ventures.

The deal size is modest by European venture standards. But it targets a specific gap: the conversion of laboratory research into fundable companies, a stage at which many Italian scientific ventures stall for lack of dedicated financing. By committing to more than 20 companies in three years, SophIA implies an average initial ticket of roughly EUR 1.4 million per venture — a level consistent with proof-of-concept and pre-seed support rather than later-stage growth capital.

The initiative also signals where CDP Venture Capital sees returns in Italy's innovation economy. Allocating the funds through its Technology Transfer and Artificial Intelligence Fund places SophIA squarely within the investor's strategy of commercializing research from universities and public institutions, with artificial intelligence as a named priority alongside broader deeptech.

If SophIA delivers its target of more than 20 supported ventures by the end of the three-year window, it could become a template for further state-private deeptech partnerships in Italy — and a test of whether EUR 27.5 million is enough to move Italian science from the lab to the market at scale.