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Both born and raised in Italy and now also British citizens, Daniele Zagnoni and Francesco Contento met years ago in London and have been close friends ever since. They have now teamed up to launch Vitis Capital, the first SF based in the Veneto region. For them, this model represents an ideal bridge: a way for skilled professionals abroad to return home and contribute to the development, continuity, and expansion of their country’s SMEs.
They have raised €680k from investors including Moonbase Global, Eureka SGR, INSETA Partners, Inversiones Cabiedes, Turtle Capital, EPA Investissement, Iniginy Capital, Colca Capital, Ventus Capital, Monforte Capital, Linta Partners, Loris Lanzellotti, Simon Webster, Pierre-Paul Benoit, Sascha Bovensmann, Phidias Capital, Elitekobe Holding, Giuseppe Visentini, Giorgio Visentini, Giovanni Toffolutti, Baudouin Lescuyer, Peter’s Troop, Stephan Morgan, and Tobias Mohr.
Daniele and Francesco bring complementary backgrounds: Daniel is a seasoned investment professional with experience in banking, private equity, and private credit at Goldman Sachs, Cerberus, and Brookfield / Castlelake; and Francesco is an experienced product designer and commercial operator with hands-on experience in sales, marketing, and operations within family-owned businesses in Italy and abroad, including Molteni Group, Adriani & Rossi, Italy Home, and as co-founder of his own design and luxury goods brand, Pacific Gyre.
Based in Treviso, they are targeting an Italian SME with an enterprise value of up to €50M. They remain sector-agnostic and opportunistic, with a natural focus on the North-East of Italy, where industrial excellence and entrepreneurship run deep. Their priority is family-owned B2B manufacturing and B2B services companies with €2–6M in EBITDA, strong cash flow generation, recurring revenue, and a long-term track record of profitability and growth. They will leverage an AI-driven sourcing infrastructure through DeepTree, supported by a dedicated data intelligence agency, to enhance their proprietary outreach and pre-screening scorecard.
