Novaterra is launched: a new evergreen holding company to build industrial champions

Milan, 27 May 2025 – The official launch of Novaterra, a new evergreen investment holding company based in Milan and London, has been announced. Created to build and scale global industrial champions with strong technological or scientific defensibility, Novaterra positions itself as an evolution of traditional Venture Capital and Private Equity models, overcoming their structural constraints through a long-term, permanent capital approach.

The initiative gains momentum through the backing of prominent new shareholders, including Emma and Antonio Marcegaglia, Fabio Innocenzi, Massimo Armanini, Lorenzo Poli, Denis Faccioli, and Franco Beccaria, who join forces around Luca Quagini, now appointed Chair of the Board of Directors. Their capital and deep industrial expertise are complemented by the support of the Sella Group Holding, known for its commitment to innovative entrepreneurial ventures, and by Novaterra’s founding shareholders, among them Galeazzo Pecori Giraldi, Guglielmo Notarbartolo di Villarosa, and Roger Abravanel.

Following a capital increase, Giuseppe Balzano has been appointed CEO, responsible for driving the group’s strategy and international growth.

Novaterra invests in what it defines as “critical companies” — businesses that are essential to resilient industrial supply chains across strategic sectors such as energy, chemicals, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals, which are vital to Europe’s competitiveness and sovereignty.

Traditional investment frameworks, often constrained by short-term exit horizons and rigid cycles, no longer meet the needs of companies operating in high-complexity, high-impact domains. Novaterra addresses this gap through a patient, strategic capital model. Its flexible investment approach allows for both minority and majority stakes, held over time, with proceeds from portfolio companies reinvested to support sustained industrial growth across the group. Shareholders benefit from an internal liquidity mechanism designed to provide an alternative to conventional market practices.

Giuseppe Balzano, CEO of Novaterra, commented:

“The investment industry is still largely driven by short-term thinking. We’re trying to shift that paradigm, as some leading players in the US have already begun to do. In the long run, we aim to build a European research and industrial powerhouse. That requires not only capital, but the time needed to nurture the ambition we’ve set for ourselves.”