The World of Venture Capitals: A Talk with Niccolò Sanarico, Investment Manager

Business Professor Riccardo Maiolini’s Strategic Decisions in Entrepreneurship class welcomed Niccolò Sanarico for a talk called “Introduction to Venture Capital: How VC Firms Evaluate an Investment Opportunity,” on November 5, 2020. Niccolò Sanarico is an investment manager at Primo Miglio SGR, an early stage venture capital fund that specializes in digital and space technologies.

Niccolò Sanarico

Niccolò Sanarico

Venture capital firms (VCs) often deal with investment funds within private companies where they make long-term investments in Start-ups in their early stages. The likelihood of a Start-up to succeed is 1 out of 10, whereas 50 percent go bankrupt, 40 percent manage to break even, and only 10 percent provide a large return on investment (ROI). To lower the risk, investors diversify their portfolios and mostly focus on highly innovative and technology-driven Start-ups that promise a high ROI.

Venture Capital is one of the fastest-growing industries, and it can be a dynamic and interesting field to work in. Nearly all VCs take around 4-5 years to invest and diversify their portfolios, and another 5-7 years to monitor, grow, and exit the market.

Sanarico received his degree in computer engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, and then earned a dual degree in computer science at the University of Illinois in Chicago. After working at Moviri, a consulting firm in Milan, he completed his MBA at Oxford University where he focused on venture capital. Then he obtained a job at Dpixel, a venture capital firm specializing in open innovation Start-ups.