Dear friends,
The rapid advance of technology continues to raise urgent, complex questions—about infrastructure, security, and the role of intelligence, both human and artificial. These questions are central to how societies function and economies grow.
At United Ventures, we look for entrepreneurs who are not just building with technology, but building for it—addressing the very challenges that its acceleration has created. From foundational questions around the future of AI to the integrity of digital identity, we’re backing teams with the vision, execution, and global ambition to meet this moment.
Across our portfolio, we’ve seen breakthroughs in scale, funding, and market expansion. Here are a few stories that stood out:
Exein raised €70M in a round led by Balderton to scale globally and secure the embedded world—it’s now protecting over a billion connected devices
We led IdentifAI’s new €5M round to strengthen defenses against deepfakes and synthetic media
Trustfull raised €6M with Seaya and Elevator Ventures to grow its identity verification and fraud prevention platform
xFarm Technologies joined forces with Brazil’s Checkplant, extending its agtech platform to over 12 million hectares
You’ll find all the details below, plus more news from the team & a reading pick we think is worth your time this summer.
Wherever you are, we hope these weeks offer rest, clarity, and inspiration. More soon 🍦
—The United Ventures team
✨ portfolio highlights ✨
Exein closed a €70 million Series C round led by Balderton and joined by Supernova and Lakestar, with continued support from previous investors 33N, Partech, and United Ventures. Over the past six years, we’ve had a front-row seat to their transformation—from bold startup to global leader in embedded runtime security.
Gianni Cuozzo, Exein’s founder, set out to build the “immune system” of digital life at a time when connected devices represent a growing target—one in three cyberattacks now come from IoT. As threats have shifted from IT departments to becoming a national security priority, Exein addresses the challenge at its root: making AI-powered, real-time threat detection a core layer of every device and not just a network add-on.
Exein now protects over one billion devices worldwide and continues to grow at over 450% year over year, partnering with manufacturers like MediaTek, Supermicro, and Kontron. This new funding will drive expansion into the US, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, and fuel product innovation in protecting AI models operating within edge devices—one of cybersecurity’s most pressing frontiers. Exein is also exploring acquisitions to scale both reach and capability.
Supporting Gianni and his team through each stage—from product inception to signing global partners, now to scaling continents—has been a privilege. This new chapter reinforces Exein’s position as a pioneer in securing the embedded world, where the next chapter of cybersecurity is being written.
We doubled down our commitment to IdentifAI by leading a €5 million round, supporting their mission to address the urgent challenge of misinformation and the growing flood of manipulated digital content.
Headquartered in Italy and now expanding into Europe and the US, IdentifAI develops advanced technology to detect whether images, videos, or audio have been digitally altered or synthetically generated—helping organizations distinguish authentic content from deepfakes and AI fabrications in real time and at scale.
As deceptive synthetic media proliferates, public trust erodes: nearly 70% of those aware of generative AI worry about being misled, and many struggle to tell genuine from fake. IdentifAI meets this head-on by leveraging deep expertise in cybersecurity, AI research, and finance to deliver precise detection tools tailored to sectors like media, finance, and insurance.
Led by cybersecurity expert Marco Ramilli and finance veteran Marco Castaldo, their team builds proactive defenses that evolve alongside emerging generative models and misinformation tactics.
From seed stage to now, we’ve valued their clear vision and steady execution. This funding will accelerate product innovation, market expansion, and help restore trust in digital content for businesses and individuals alike.
Learn more about our investment in IdentifAI.
Trustfull, the Milan-based platform focused on advanced identity verification and fraud prevention, raised €6 million in a round led by Seaya and Elevator Ventures. We’re proud to continue as returning investors in a team committed to securing digital identities and mitigating risk.
Using real-time analysis of data points—such as phone numbers, emails, devices, and IP addresses—Trustfull empowers businesses to confirm identities and perform thorough risk assessments without interrupting the customer experience. Their platform supports critical workflows like KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business), and AML (Anti-Money Laundering).
In an era where fraud tactics rapidly evolve—including synthetic identities, sophisticated phishing, and AI-driven schemes—Trustfull’s adaptive, signal-based approach provides continuous verification that goes beyond static document checks.
Serving sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, and iGaming, Trustfull is on track to process over 100 million identity verifications this year. The new funding will bolster their expansion across Italy, Spain, France, and other European markets.
Having supported Trustfull from its early days, we continue to admire their dedicated team and strong execution in setting new benchmarks for fraud prevention.
Learn more about our investment in Trustfull.
Earlier this year, we watched xFarm Technologies extend its reach into Latin America by joining forces with Brazil’s Checkplant. Recent months have brought even more momentum, with new partnerships, projects, and global impact. Its innovative digital platform sits at the heart of an ecosystem shaping the future of agriculture across Europe, Latin America, and beyond.
What’s next? With ongoing expansion, new tools for supply chain traceability, and deep collaborations across the agricultural value chain, xFarm Technologies continues to innovate for more sustainable, efficient, and resilient food systems, supporting farms of every size from Europe to Latin America.
To learn more, check out their latest Impact Report. It offers an inspiring view of what positive change looks like: in 2024, xFarm Technologies supported over 496,739 farmers, digitized 8.5 million hectares, and helped save more than 1.9 billion liters of water. But the real impact? It’s in every optimized irrigation, every byte of sensor data, every farmer empowered to take more sustainable decisions.
Earlier this year, we invested in Akamas to bring autonomous optimization to modern enterprise infrastructure.
Cloud and Kubernetes environments are incredibly powerful—but also complex, costly, and hard to tune. Akamas addresses this challenge head-on with an AI-driven platform that continuously fine-tunes application and infrastructure settings to strike the right balance between performance, reliability, and cost.
Spun out of Moviri and built on more than six years of R&D, Akamas turns what was once a specialized consulting service into intelligent software that adapts in real time. It doesn’t just reduce waste—it helps IT teams deliver faster, more resilient systems, without the guesswork.
We led Akamas’ $10 million funding round to support their next chapter: expanding across North America and Europe, deepening integrations with major observability platforms, and launching new capabilities like Kubernetes Insight and a SaaS version of their platform.
Led by Luca Forni and Stefano Doni, this is a team combining technical excellence with commercial traction. Revenue has tripled in the past year, their software supports major enterprises across finance, telecom, and retail, and their momentum is only accelerating.
Learn more about our investment in Akamas.
🌎 ecosystem 🌎
In June, we kicked off a new partnership with Bologna Business School—rooted in a shared commitment to fostering innovation where research, enterprise, and capital converge.
To mark the moment, Dean Max Bergami offered us a symbolic gift: a brick from the School’s new campus. A simple reminder that transformation begins with strong foundations. Together with founders, students, and investors, we explored how technology is reshaping business, society, and the future of work.
Venture capital has a role to play here—not just as funding, but as infrastructure, signal, and conviction. Especially where industrial heritage meets technological ambition. If Europe is to lead in this era, it must write its own story and support those bold enough to redefine it.
📅 save the date 📅
We’ll be on the road this fall. Hope to see you there:
Italian Tech Week, Turin | October 1–3
The flagship event for Italy’s tech ecosystem returns. We’re looking forward to reconnecting and to the conversations this edition will spark.
0100 Conference, Milan | October 27–29
A key gathering for private equity and venture capital in the Mediterranean region. We’ll join discussions on fundraising, market dynamics, and the evolving relationship between LPs and GPs.
👋 News from the Team 👋
Please welcome Gabriele Fiacconi to the United Ventures team!
Gabriele joined in June and works at the intersection of AI, engineering, and venture capital. He supports technical due diligence, product analysis, and infrastructure evaluations—and leads the development of internal AI tools that power our operations.
Before joining us, he was a senior AI engineer at a global consultancy, leading GenAI deployments for clients across finance, legal, and manufacturing. He brings experience in LLMOps, vector search, RAG systems, and cloud-native infrastructure.
He holds a degree in Applied Mathematics from Politecnico di Torino and is currently training for his second marathon. When not running, he enjoys golf, long walks around Rome, and reading anything he can get his hands on.
💡 insights 💡
“Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we expect continued momentum in sectors where Europe can play a strategic role—particularly AI-enabled enterprise software, cybersecurity, and deep tech infrastructure. At United Ventures, we remain committed to early-stage investments that leverage Europe’s rich technical talent and world-class research, while recognizing the urgent need for greater market integration and capital scale. The growing geopolitical focus on technological sovereignty is shifting perspectives—founders are more ambitious, and policymakers more aligned. This opens a window for Europe not to replicate models from abroad, but to chart its own course in innovation. We’re backing teams that understand this inflection point and are building globally competitive companies from day one, while deeply grounded in the European ecosystem.”
— Massimiliano Magrini, co-founder & managing partner, United Ventures
From The Big Book of VC – Q2 2025, which offers a clear snapshot of what’s really happening across the ecosystem. If you’re tracking venture in Europe, it’s worth a read—to see how the underlying dynamics are shifting in deeper, more strategic ways. Thanks to Rohit Yadav for pulling it all together.
📚 one book to read 📚
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. This sharp, insider memoir from Facebook’s former head of public policy offers a revealing look into the company’s internal culture and its responses to global crises—from the Rohingya genocide to censorship in China. Wynn-Williams delivers a damning portrait of misplaced priorities, moral drift, and leadership failures at the highest levels. Part cautionary tale, part corporate critique, the book is essential reading for anyone reflecting on power, technology, and accountability.
What stayed with me most is this: much of the harm described wasn’t always intentional. Some of it was—but often, it was the byproduct of not caring enough, of downplaying responsibility, or believing action wasn’t worth the effort. Still, every small decision we make in our professional lives can ripple outward, often in ways we don’t anticipate. For me, it was a reminder to care, to stay mindful and grounded—and to always act with integrity.
That’s all for today!
Thanks for reading United Ventures’ newsletter. Stay tuned and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for more updates.
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