Fund I is raising
Certosa Venture is a $35M seed fund for people who leave Europe's best consumer and commerce scaleups to found an AI-native company in e-commerce, marketplaces or B2B SaaS. The talent is European; the structure, follow-on capital and exit path are American.
The people best qualified to build the next great company are the ones with the least personal incentive to do it.
Anyone who has spent years inside Bending Spoons, Depop, Docebo, Scalapay or Yoox has seen up close how a company really scales. They also hold compensation, equity and status that make leaving expensive. Venture capital usually meets these people only after they have decided to go, by which point they are in a competitive round open to everyone.
We want to get there earlier: know these operators while they are still inside, and stand with them at the moment they choose to found. We select them through a proprietary three-gate process and, after the investment, they are supported by a team that has built commerce companies first-hand.
“I always tell them to stay at Scalapay, because I'm still a shareholder.”
The paradox, told by an insider. It is also a warning: incumbents with equity work actively to keep their best people.
IPOs and acquisitions unlock vesting, change reporting lines and reset incentives. These are the windows when retention is structurally weakest.
A change of ownership loosens retention for the people who built the platform.
A deal of roughly $1.2 billion: reporting lines and incentives start over.
At a valuation of about $18.4 billion, liquidity unlocks vesting for long-tenured staff.
These are the moments when the relationships we already have matter most. Not a generic claim of a broad network, but specific, dated windows when retention is weakest.
Bending SpoonsDepopDoceboScalapayYoox
Five flagship companies today, expanding to roughly 20–30 European consumer, commerce and marketplace scaleups with a similar density of operators. The final list is still being defined.
We focus on operators: directors, product leads, engineers. Not the founders of these companies: that is where the information edge lives. The names above describe where talent comes from and imply no affiliation or agreement with the companies.
An operator's inside knowledge is what makes an AI product hard to copy. We do not pay a valuation premium for the word “AI”: we back people who know workflows, data or distribution that others do not.
| Source | What they know that others don't | AI company they can build |
|---|---|---|
| Bending Spoons | Running subscription software at scale: growth loops, monetization, product experimentation | AI-native consumer and SMB software; AI tooling for growth and monetization |
| Depop | Marketplace liquidity, trust and social commerce dynamics | AI for listing, pricing, authentication and supply automation |
| Scalapay | Merchant onboarding, payments and credit risk data | AI underwriting, fraud prevention and analytics for commerce merchants |
| Docebo | Enterprise go-to-market in B2B SaaS; AI-powered learning | Vertical B2B SaaS with an enterprise motion; AI enablement tools |
| Yoox | Fashion e-commerce operations: catalog, merchandising, logistics | AI for catalog enrichment, merchandising, returns and logistics |
Working hypotheses, to be validated with the network.
Alumni networks of great companies are among the most prolific sources of founders. None of them, though, had a fund engaging operators before they resigned: that is what we add.
| Alumni network | Companies founded | Unicorns | Capital raised |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal Mafia | ~220 alumni | 7+, including LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir | Multiple $1B+ exits and IPOs |
| Uber alumni | 864 companies (since 2011) | 9 active | $38.1B |
| McKinsey alumni | 1,392 companies | 15+ | $84B |
We bet on the same pattern, earlier. Bending Spoons, Depop, Docebo, Scalapay and Yoox have already produced spinouts led by former operators, including Desia, Zefi.ai, Delli and Ratel. That is the base rate, before the network even widens.
A realistic benchmark, not the outlier: Uber alumni's unicorn rate (about 1%, 9 of 864) is more representative than PayPal's exceptional density. Figures from public sources, indicative.
A documented selection process shared across partners, not one person's judgment. Each gate rules out excellent companies, and that is exactly its purpose.
Verifiable evidence of ownership: a metric driven, a product shipped, a P&L or team run with measurable results. A famous name on the CV is not enough.
0-to-1 instinct already shown from the inside: unrequested projects, initiatives pushed through resistance, side ventures.
E-commerce, marketplaces or B2B SaaS with AI at the core, where the founder's operating experience is the reason they can win: inside knowledge of workflows, data or distribution that others lack.
No AI for its own sake: a higher valuation is a cost to us, not an advantage. The vertical is not a marketing choice: it is where our help after the investment is real.
How we plan to build the portfolio. An illustrative plan, not historical data or a guarantee.
Where Bending Spoons, Yoox and Scalapay operators have hands-on commerce operations experience.
Where Depop and Scalapay operators know liquidity, trust and merchant dynamics.
Where Docebo and Bending Spoons operators know enterprise and subscription motions.
The actual mix will follow the candidates who clear the gates, not a fixed quota. Each check targets about 10% ownership.
What a founder gets when we join the cap table.
Recruiting the first ten: ex-scaleup talent from our network, and technical talent from Southern Italy through the Startup Village, Founder Institute and universities.
Access to real buyers: ShopNow's e-commerce operations, Markeplay's customers, and the fund's LPs and investors.
Coaching through the shift from senior operator to CEO-founder, from partners who have built and run companies, plus the Founder Institute and Techstars communities.
Delaware flip, Series A introductions and support relocating to Silicon Valley.
Product and AI development (Monaci.AI, Markeplay). Optional and secondary: at market rates, disclosed to LPs, never a hidden revenue stream for the GPs. We do not write the founder's code for them.
Relationships with operators, not just founders, before they resign. The funnel shows it, not just the claim.
Three gates, assessed by more than one partner, with structured references. Not one partner's instinct.
Founders who scaled an e-commerce business to about €15M and built a Startup Village. Delaware entity, US follow-on and exit from day one.
We complement other funds, we don't replace them. We write the first check before the exit, then invest alongside local funds in later seed and Series A rounds.
We do not filter founders by nationality or first market: the best operators may start by building for Europe. What stays fixed is how we structure the investment.
Origin and the initial customer geography are not exclusion criteria.
A Delaware C-Corp, or equivalent, before or at the time of investment. This is non-negotiable.
Standard seed instruments, fund reporting, American follow-on investors and a realistic exit path.
Lead at pre-seed, co-lead at seed, not lead at seed. Measured initial checks and meaningful reserves to back what works.
A flat $1.4M check across 20 companies would consume all investable capital and leave nothing for follow-on. That is why $1.4M is the average total investment per company over time, not the first check. At the 2025 US median seed ($4M raised on about $20M post-money) it is a co-lead position; at pre-seed it can lead the round outright.
Target ~10% at entry. No deal below ~8%.
At 10% entry ownership, an exit of about $500M returns the whole fund; at 8% it takes about $630M, at 5% more than $1 billion. That sets our maximum entry valuation: $0.9M ÷ 10% ≈ $9M post-money. At the US median seed, $1M buys about 5%, so we lead the pre-seed, or we pass.
Illustrative: about 30% dilution after entry, pro-rata maintained through Series A.
| Target fund size | $35M |
|---|---|
| Minimum LP commitment | $25,000 |
| GP commitment | $100,000, cash-funded |
| Fund term | 10 years |
| Fundraising period | 36 months |
| Capital call | Single call, 100% at LP admission |
| Fees | 5% year 1 + 5% year 2 (10% total), plus an operations fee over the fund term |
| Investable capital | About 80% of commitments |
| Carried interest | 20% (18% to the Investment Lead, 2% to fund expenses) |
| Initial check | About $0.8–1.0M: lead pre-seed or co-lead seed |
| Follow-on reserves | About 35–40% of investable capital |
| Target ownership | About 10% at entry, floor about 8% |
| Portfolio | About 20–24 companies |
Initial check, reserve and ownership figures are recommendations pending confirmation. Only the fund's official documents contain binding terms.
Investment Lead
Co-founder of Monaci Digitali, the European Commission-certified Startup Village at the Certosa di San Lorenzo, and co-founder of Markeplay and Monaci.AI. In the Vallo di Diano, Southern Italy, he is building the region's startup ecosystem and founder pipeline.
Managing Partner
Founder of ShopNow, which scaled Italian e-commerce brands (LeTapparelle.com, BricoBros, DocciaBox) to about €15M in annual revenue. CEO and co-founder of Monaci Digitali. Active angel investor in Pandhora, Drita Capital Partners and Clean Technology.
Venture Partner / Advisor
More than 20 years as a C-level executive at US corporations, and an investor and LP in several US venture funds. Will work with us on scouting, first founder conversations and support entering the US market.
This is operating experience and personal angel investing, not fund investments. Certosa Venture has not made any investments yet.
For founders who are visible and already out, yes. That is why we work on timing: engaging before resignation means being there before that premium exists.
It is a real risk. The three gates are the answer: a documented process shared across partners, not one person's judgment.
Gate 2 is the defense: we require evidence of founder behavior that already exists, independent of their relationship with us.
Precedent says yes. So we build a network of 20–30 source companies from day one, and track the share of insider founders in the portfolio over time.
For fund administration, follow-on and exit. It is not a nationality test or a constraint on where customers are: it only concerns the legal structure of the investment.
We do not buy AI for its premium: to us it is a cost. We fund AI only where the operator's inside knowledge makes it hard to copy.
A different role: we engage before the decision, lead the first check and set up the US structure from day one. Then we invest alongside local funds in later rounds.
If you would like to take part as an LP, the first step is signing the PACT on Decile Hub, the platform that runs the vehicle. You register your interest; we then follow up with the official documents and next steps.
Minimum commitment $25,000. Open only to investors who meet the requirements of applicable law.
