NEVA SGR (INTESA SANPAOLO GROUP) INVESTS IN V-NOVA

Neva SGR, Intesa Sanpaolo Group's venture capital firm focused on the tech industry, is placing its bets on the growth of V-Nova, a high-growth company based in London but with Italian roots, operating in the compression of video and image data. Thanks to Neva First, the alternative investment fund managed by Neva SGR, V-Nova has completed its series C round, having raised a total of 33 million.

The strategic importance of images and video and their growing use in many areas of the economy of the future (from social media to hybrid working models to self-driving vehicles) convinced Neva First of the strong potential of V-Nova's business, which could grow into a unicorn company.

V-Nova focuses on technologies that offer users a new, richer interactive experience with images and videos. Its main areas of application are video streaming, social media, web video, video communication, virtual reality and immersive video, broadcasting, professional production/post-production and artificial intelligence (AI) media indexing. The company has already registered over 300 international patents and currently employs around 70 people between its headquarters in London and facilities in Bangalore. V-Nova's business model consists of monetising its technologies through IP royalties under software licensing agreements.

V-Nova technology underpins two new and highly innovative video and image international compression standards:

ISO/IEC 23094-2 MPEG-5 part 2 LCEVC (Low-ComplexityEnhancement Video Coding), the first and only MPEG standard that improves the performance of any existing or future codec;

ST-2117 SMPTE VC-6, a full codec that can be used for next-generation applications, thanks to its unique hierarchical format powered by embedded neural networks. VC-6 is particularly light in terms of processing, and its structure a multi-fold acceleration of AI media indexing, whilst also improving recognition accuracy.

V-Nova's solutions help reduce environmental impact by improving video performance on existing hardware without the need to replace it and by reducing energy consumption in data centers due to the decrease in the computational capacity demand for video processing. The sustainability benefits enabled by V-Nova's technologies are in line with Neva SGR's and Intesa Sanpaolo Group's commitment to green investments and were a key driver in the decision to invest.

Neva SGR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the group company focused on innovation, which aims to offer its investor clients the opportunity to invest through its funds in high-growth companies that are developing solutions to the greatest challenges of global innovation.

Silverpeak, the bank specializing in technology investments, was V-Nova's financial advisor in the equity financing round.

We decided to invest in V-Nova because it has all the right components to become a billion euro company in the next few years, explained Mario Costantini, CEO of Neva SGR. We are convinced that the company will soon establish itself on the market as a tech leader alongside top global players, and we are prepared to support it in its future developments. This investment meets three essential conditions for Neva SGR's growth: investing in companies that guarantee excellent returns for our investors, supporting high-technology, high-innovation companies and doing so in the pursuit of environmental sustainability.

The support we have received from Neva SGR, enables us to move forward with our mission to develop video compression technologies that allow the largest number of users to access their favourite content anywhere and on any device, efficiently and sustainably, remarked Guido Meardi, CEO & Co-Founder of V-Nova. Neva's commitment further strengthens our balance sheet and will propel us forward on our strategic path, improving our market position.

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