PRESS RELEASE

NEVA SGR INVESTS IN BIO4DREAMS

    • The Intesa Sanpaolo Group's venture capital company, through its Fondo Sei - Sviluppo ecosistemi di innovazione fund, has entered the capital of the Italian incubator of innovative start-ups operating in the Life Sciences sector.
  • With Neva Sgr, Bio4Dreams consolidates its position in the Italian innovation ecosystem and aims to strengthen its internal structure, with the aim of accelerating the development of its activities at an international level.
  • Mario Costantini: "Neva Sgr's investment in Bio4Dreams aims to support and accelerate innovation in the Life Sciences sector in Italy".
  • Elisabetta Borello: "The synergies that Bio4Dreams will be able to create with the various players in the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's innovation system will be crucial".

Turin/Milan, 16 July 2024 - Neva Sgr, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's venture capital company, has entered the capital of Bio4Dreams Spa, an Italian incubator of innovative start-ups at a very early stage operating in the Life Sciences sector, through its Fondo Sei - Sviluppo ecosistemi di innovazione fund.

Entirely underwritten by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the Group's company dedicated to frontier innovation, Fondo Sei is an alternative investment fund established and managed by Neva Sgr whose objective is to support the growth of the Italian innovation ecosystem through targeted investments in vehicles that implement research, selection, acceleration and professionalisation programmes for promising start-ups.

With the entry of Neva Sgr's Fondo Sei and the collaboration already initiated with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Bio4Dreams consolidates its position in the Italian innovation ecosystem and aims to strengthen its internal structure, with the aim of accelerating the development of its activities at an international level.

The entry of Fondo Sei is a further confirmation of the results achieved by Bio4Dreams in six years of intense work both in Italy and abroad, a path that has led

the company to become a European benchmark for innovation in the country, actively contributing to the evolution of territorial ecosystems in the Life Sciences field.

Since 2018, to date the Bio4Dreams incubator has evaluated around 1600 entrepreneurial projects from the ecosystems it presides over in Italy (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Como, Bolzano, Trento, Trieste, Venice, Siena and Naples) and abroad (Pécs in Hungary, Krakow in Poland and Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US), launching customised incubation paths for 47 start-ups and innovative SMEs and creating a portfolio of 15 investee companies with a total value of more than €71 million. The realities supported by the incubator are positioned in the main Life Sciences sectors, from pharmaceuticals to medical devices, from diagnostics to E-Health up to Agri- foodtech and the circular bio-economy.

Fondo Sei's investment includes a new member in the Bio4Dreams board of directors appointed by Neva Sgr.

Mario Costantini, CEO and General Manager of Neva Sgr, states: "Neva Sgr's investment in Bio4Dreams aims to support and accelerate innovation in the Life Sciences sector in Italy. Our country boasts many excellent researchers and start- uppers, but they often prefer to go abroad to develop their ideas and realise their projects. With our Fondo Sei, we are proud to be able to support Bio4Dreams in its growth, an incubator that helps to retain and attract highly innovative start-ups to our region".

Elisabetta Borello, Co-Founder, VP Strategy & External Relations at Bio4Dreams, says: "We are excited and honoured to have Neva Sgr at our side, through Fondo Sei, and to collaborate with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. The synergies that Bio4Dreams will be able to create with the various players in the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's innovation system will be crucial to continuing along the growth path, to chart new courses and to face the challenges that await us in the coming years".

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Neva SGR

Neva SGR, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and 100% owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, designs and manages investment funds for professional investors interested in exploiting the diversification and high-yield opportunities offered by venture capital investments. Neva SGR can rely on the strength, financial resources, know-how and network of relationships of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, a unique source of value in the market. Neva SGR can follow trends and markets from a privileged position and acts with the strength and responsibility of Italy's leading banking group. Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center invested in Neva First, the investment fund designed for excellent, high-tech, highly innovative start-ups that exploit trends with exponential growth potential.

Neva SGR is the perfect combination of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's strength, reputation and stability with the best practices of international venture capital firms. Neva SGR aims to contribute to the growth of the Italian economy through investments in new technologies and to be the market maker of the Venture Capital asset class in Italy.

www.nevasgr.com

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Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center

Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center is the Intesa Sanpaolo Group company dedicated to the innovation frontier. It explores scenarios and future trends, develops multidisciplinary applied research projects, supports start-ups, accelerates the business transformation of companies according to open innovation and circular economy criteria, encourages the development of innovative ecosystems and spreads a culture of innovation, with the goal of making Intesa Sanpaolo the driving force behind a more aware, inclusive and sustainable economy. Headquartered on the 31st floor of the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper, with a national and international network of hubs and laboratories, the Innovation Center is an enabler of relations with other stakeholders in the

innovation ecosystem - such as companies, start-ups, incubators, research centres, universities, national and international institutions - and a promoter of new forms of entrepreneurship in access to risk capital, with the support of venture capital funds, including through its subsidiary Neva SGR.

Media Relations

Intesa Sanpaolo

Corporate & Investment Banking and Governance Areas stampa@intesasanpaolo.com www.intesasanpaolo.com/it/news

Bio4Dreams

Bio4Dreams is a privately owned incubator, launched in 2018 and certified by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, fully dedicated to supporting very early-stage startups and promoting innovation ecosystems in Life Sciences. Bio4Dreams has created a supranational innovation ecosystem and serves as a reference point for highly innovative entrepreneurial ideas. In this scenario, Bio4Dreams collaborates with Universities, Research Centers, Hubs, and local entities to facilitate the technological transfer of innovation from its earliest stages. Alongside, it works with startups and research groups to define personalized paths for acceleration, incubation, and growth. Currently, the Bio4Dreams ecosystem includes 11 national locations, with its headquarters at MIND - Milano Innovation District, and 3 international innovation hubs. The incubator has a portfolio of 47 incubated startups/SMEs (since 2018) and 15 affiliated companies, with a network of about 100 national and international partners.

News: bio4dreams.com/en/news

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/bio4dreams

Facebook: @bio4dreams

Instagram: @bio4dreams

Media Relations

Bio4Dreams

Corporate & Media Relations press@bio4dreams.com www.bio4dreams.com/news

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Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. published this content on 16 July 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 July 2024 09:43:02 UTC.