In Italy, around 50 Series A funding rounds are closed each year, but seven out of ten do not lead the start-up to a subsequent round. This is according to an analysis by Djungle Holding, which highlights that the total number of start-ups that have raised capital over the last 7–8 years but are now in a state of structural stagnation stands at around 1,000, of which 200 have already passed the Series A threshold. These are companies with established products, customers and revenue, held back not by business issues but by congested cap tables, dysfunctional governance or gaps in managerial execution.
To overcome this stagnation, Djungle Bridge has been launched in Turin: a fund dedicated to acquiring and revitalising Italian post-Series A start-ups that are struggling. The project was officially unveiled at the holding company’s general meeting of shareholders, coinciding with the demo day of the Space for Imagination accelerator.
“In recent years, we have seen first-hand companies that were generating revenue, had established production and market presence, yet were at risk of liquidation due to governance or capital structure issues, resulting in the loss of 10, 15 or 20 million euros in investments accumulated over time. This is a drain that the country’s economy cannot afford. Innovation is one of the foundational pillars of the Italian economy and must be treated as such, with industrial discipline, but it often ends up being a self-referential game,” says Giulietta Testa, CEO and co-founder of Djungle Holding (pictured with Alessandro Nasi on the right and Davide Vallero), in a statement.
Djungle Bridge focuses specifically on this segment. The Bridge I fund, with a fundraising target of €50 million, plans to make 12 investments over five years, with an initial investment of €1.25 million and an average holding period of 36–48 months. The model is industrial turnaround: acquiring a controlling stake at a significant discount to the latest valuation, operational restructuring, growing towards break-even, and exiting to industrial operators or lower mid-market funds. For each company, the team brings in fractional executives (CFO, COO, CRO) with a proven track record of turnarounds in technology SMEs. The aim is not to chase the missed opportunity to become a hyperscale company, but to transform former start-ups into profitable and saleable tech SMEs, with expected exit multiples of between 6 and 8 times EBITDA.
The euphoric period of 2020–2022 left Italian venture funds with oversized portfolios, now that the investment cycle is coming to an end. Follow-on capital has fallen sharply, as confirmed by data from AIFI/PwC, and founders, institutional investors and angel networks have gradually become open to consolidation deals. According to Djungle Bridge’s estimates, there are around 30 Italian post-Series A start-ups with solid fundamentals and a credible path to break-even, but trapped in governance dynamics that venture capital is ill-equipped to resolve.
Djungle Bridge forms part of the Djungle Holding ecosystem, an independent industrial group founded in Turin in 2024 by Alessandro Nasi and Giulietta Testa. The pair started out in 2017 with a B2B SaaS marketing automation platform for the retail sector, which they sold in 2021 to a Turin-based industrial group, generating a return of 12.5 times their initial investment over three years. Following the exit, Nasi led the group’s global digital unit, whilst Testa is now one of 40 female entrepreneurs recognised by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy in the digital sector (Women Excellence Award 2023).
This trajectory gave rise to the holding company, which today oversees the entire early-stage cycle through three verticals: the venture builder Djungle SOLO, the accelerator Space for Imagination, and the turnaround fund Djungle Bridge. The shareholder base comprises 29 members, including entrepreneurs, C-level executives and scale-up founders, with experience at Ferrari, Ferrero, Microsoft, Accenture, Ericsson, Geodis, Henkel and Newcleo. The advisory board includes Francesco Sacco (SDA Bocconi) and Alessandro Messina, former director of Satispay. Leading the fund as managing partner is Davide Vallero, a Sloan Fellow at London Business School, who has already completed three turnarounds of technology SMEs. The GP has been capitalised by seven early-adopter equity partners.
“Venture capital is structured to seek out unicorns, but the vast majority of start-ups never become one. When a Series A round does not lead to hyper-growth within two or three years, the company ends up in a grey area: too mature for venture capital, too small for traditional private equity. Bridge focuses precisely on that area: a turnaround isn’t achieved with capital, but with execution,” comments Alessandro Nasi, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Djungle Holding.
Djungle Bridge’s institutional roadshow will kick off at the end of June 2026 with a meeting aimed at banking foundations and institutional investors, in preparation for the launch of the Bridge I fund, which is expected by the end of the year.
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