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

• Through the Neva First Investment Fund, Neva SGR is supporting the development of this high-growth company active in video and image data compression

• V-Nova’s technologies will be crucial to the future of video streaming and help reduce environmental impact, in the pursuit of greater efficiency and sustainability

• Additional investments will bolster V-Nova’s commercial roll-out of video compression software

London, 26^th July 2021 – 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-Complexity Enhancement 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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NEVA SGR

Neva SGR, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and wholly owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, plans and manages investment funds for professional investors interested in seizing the diversification and high-yield opportunities offered by venture capital investments.

Neva SGR can count on Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center’s and Intesa Sanpaolo Group’s strength, financial resources, know-how and network of relationships, a unique source of value on the market. Neva SGR can watch trends and markets from a privileged position, to then take action with the force and responsibility of Italy’s leading banking group.

Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center has invested in Neva First, the investment fund designed for excellent, high-tech, high-innovation start-ups harnessing trends with the potential for exponential growth. The fund mainly focuses on FinTechs and Italian companies with global growth plans or international companies that intend to develop projects with positive effects on industrial and production chains in Italy.

Media Relations

Intesa Sanpaolo

Corporate & Investment Banking and Governance Areas

[email protected]

www.intesasanpaolo.com/it/news

About V-Nova

V-Nova, a London based IP and software company, is dedicated to improving data compression by building a vast portfolio of innovative technologies based on the game-changing use of AI and parallel processing for data, video, imaging, point cloud compression, with applications across several verticals.

This is achieved through deep-science R&D (300+ international patents) and the development of products that test, prove and continuously enhance the technology portfolio.

V-Nova LCEVC is the industry’s first highly optimized library for encoding and decoding enhanced video streams with MPEG-5 Part 2, Low-Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC). V-Nova VC-6 is a high-performance AI-powered software library for SMPTE VC-6 (ST-2117) which is used for professional imaging applications.

V-Nova has developed multiple award-winning software products to kickstart the ecosystems for its technologies and allow their immediate deployment, addressing use cases in TV, media, entertainment, social networks, eCommerce, ad-tech, security, aerospace, defence, automotive and gaming.

V-Nova’s business model is to monetize its technologies through software licensing, IP royalties and product sales. For more information – https://www.vnova.com