The company's venture building unit will focus on edtech and the future of work.
The ZNEXT team, with CEO Elena Lavezzi (centre)
Italian publishing house Zanichelli Editore has launched a build-and-acquire unit with a €60m ($69m) fund for venture building and M&A.
ZNEXT’s venture building business will co-found companies alongside entrepreneurs from both outside and within Zanichelli, providing an initial €150k ($172k) injection. It will target edtech, the future of work, lifelong learning and wellbeing technology. ZNEXT will give ventures support by drawing on Zanichelli’s operational expertise and network.
The unit said the M&A side will acquire “small, established businesses and startups” that are in line with the venture building investment thesis.
Announcing the unit’s launch, ZNEXT’s CEO Elena Lavezzi said “diversification is key, and the core Zanichelli business has continuously innovated, harnessing the potential of evolving markets for over 150 years.”
Zanichelli Editore, founded in 1859, primarily publishes educational and professional books. It published the first Italian translations of Darwin’s On the Origins of Species and Einstein’s Relativity.
It runs a corporate investment arm, Zanichelli Venture, which since 2019 has invested in early stage edtech startups. Last year, it took part in the pre-seed funding round for Anthropos, a US career skills development platform.
