Znext is Zanichelli Editore’s new project that starts with a 60 million euro investment. The aim of the initiative is to support the growth of excellent technology companies committed to the development of solutions capable of concretely improving everyday life, work and learning. The launch of Znext represents, according to the company’s intentions, the natural evolution in the history of Zanichelli, which for over 160 years has accompanied millions of Italian students and teachers in their educational journey.
Znext aims to work alongside entrepreneurs capable of driving change, in Italy and abroad, through a venture building model and a structured M&A plan to enter high-potential start-ups and enterprises in the edutech, future of work, lifelong learning and wellbeing technology sectors.
Elena Lavezzi , who has experience in the world of innovation, having worked in management roles in companies such as Uber and Revolut, leads the project and tells Startupbusiness: “The project is divided into two types of activity: venture building with investments of 150,000 euro for each project with the possibility of follow-on, and M&A where the investment depends on individual deals but we always aim to take majority and work, in the latter case also with companies not only in the tech sector. The investment project has an expected life of seven years, so we are not in a hurry to invest even though we expect the first few years to be the most dynamic, at the moment we are already evaluating possible deals and expect to announce the first deal by the end of 2025′.
The venture builder will act as co-founder of entrepreneurial projects both external and internal to the Zanichelli ecosystem and from all over the world. Each new venture launched will receive up to EUR 150,000 in initial pre-seed investment, with the possibility of follow-on. Added to this will be continuous operational support, access to specialist expertise and the group’s network. All opportunities will be evaluated with a data-driven approach to verify the market potential and technical soundness of each project.
“Our model is built to give support to founders, to make talented founders choose us for what we offer,” adds Lavezzi, who is the CEO of Znext (centre in the photo). “Our task is to take care of all the non-core aspects so that our founders can focus on the vision of the venture, and we want to build our reputation on the basis of the goodness of the deals and the goodness of the support we provide, also with a view to subsequent deals that may also involve other co-investors. We work with the logic of a network, of a platform of start-ups, and not with the logic of a portfolio of investments, also because the four investment areas we have selected are interconnected.
“Innovation, for Zanichelli, has always been a cultural process before being a technological one,” adds Irene Enriques, managing director of Zanichelli Editore. “Our history is made up of choices that have always centred on access to knowledge and people’s progress. Znext allows us to accompany and promote entrepreneurial projects that interpret our educational mission in a new way, and represents a coherent evolution of the group’s vision: not only to support innovation, but to actively contribute to creating it’.
The M&A programme will be able to acquire majority stakes in both established small companies and start-ups with attractive proposals in line with the investment strategy. Znext will then work with existing management to introduce or optimise new technologies to increase the value of the acquired companies.
“The ever-faster pace of technological innovation, globalisation and changes in social needs remind us how crucial the ability to adapt is,” says Ferrante Enriques, partner at Zanichelli Editore and promoter of the Znext project. “We remain firm believers in the value of traditional education, but we believe that today technology can amplify its reach and make it more accessible. With Znext we want to invest in this direction, helping people to rethink the way they live, work and learn’.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©