By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media
Milan, Italy-based Maia Ventures has announced the launch of its debut €55 million venture capital fund dedicated to early-stage agtech food startups. This fresh committed capital infusion signals a commitment to tackling global challenges in food production, health and sustainability at a time when the sector is ripe for transformative deep-tech solutions.
Maia Ventures acknowledged LPs including CDP Venture Capital and the European Investment Fund (EIF) for their partnership alongside strategic backers featuring Teseo Capital, Cereal Docks through Grey Silo Ventures, and Andriani, according to reports. The fund reportedly aims to invest in roughly two-dozen promising startups, with investments ranging from €0.5 million-€1.5 million.
CDP Venture Capital’s Claudia Pingue is cited by EU Startups as saying, “We invested in Maia Ventures because it connects Italy’s world-class food industry with breakthrough agri-food-tech innovation. The team’s deep expertise and robust network enable them to identify high-impact deep-tech solutions at the intersection of nutraceutical, food and health, where long-term value and systemic resilience are established.”
Classified under SFDR Article 8, Maia Ventures is built to deliver both competitive returns and measurable environmental impact. The fund strategy is to connect Italy’s proven food companies and supply-chain operators with a new wave of tech-driven founders emerging from leading accelerators and universities. In practice, that means translating lab breakthroughs and startup ingenuity into real products, pilots and partnerships inside an industry that already has scale so innovation moves through channels such as grain and feed mills, olive oil presses and distribution networks, etc.
Maia Ventures represents a team of founders, investors, operators and scientists, backed by an advisory board of experts from Italy’s leading agri-food universities and major corporations. With six investments now in the books, the firm is now fully operational and expects to finalize its fund close in the coming months. The fund is managed by alternative investment fund manager Praesidium, based in Luxembourg, and advised by Maia Advisors.
Maia Ventures Founding Partner Andrea Galassi reportedly said, “By combining deep industry know-how with a strong industrial network, Maia is best positioned to identify and invest in solutions to problems that matter, instead of in solutions in search of a problem. This, we believe, is the key to tangibly accelerate the much-needed evolution of our industry.”
Maia Ventures launched its first fund amid an active but varied European agri-food/agtech landscape in 2025. Recent funding rounds include Proba in the Netherlands with €1 million for agri-food decarbonization. KOA Biotech in Barcelona, Spain secured €2 million for aquaculture biosensors. Larger deals have emerged too. Swiss startup ecoRobotix closed a €90 million Series D for precision farming. Feld.energy in Germany raised over €10 million for agri-PV. Earlier this year, Nordic Foodtech VC announced a €40 million first close for its second fund for early-stage innovations that transform the food and agriculture value chain.
Launched in 2024 by Andrea Galassi and David Bassani, Maia Ventures focuses on guiding alternative investment vehicles in the agtech food sector with a mission to “empower the next generation of agri-food entrepreneurs to harness science and technology in building game-changing companies.” Maia connects Italy’s established food industry with early-stage innovations at the intersection of food, health and sustainability, a model that may stimulate further venture activity in Italy’s ag ecosystem.
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