Corporate Venture Capital and Building
Giacomo Manzoni and Sebastiano Silvestri on why A2A runs both a venture capital unit and a venture building unit, and how the two work together.
With Giacomo Manzoni and Sebastiano Silvestri
From The Corporate Venturing Podcast, brought to you by Open Road Ventures
4 things this conversation gets into
- 01Why A2A set up both CVC and venture building
- 02Structuring CVC for industrial synergies, not just returns
- 03Talent, IP and C-level sponsorship when building from within
- 04Metrics from portfolio performance to internal adoption
Giacomo Manzoni is Head of Corporate Venture Building and Sebastiano Silvestri is Head of Corporate Venture Capital at A2A, Italy's leading multi utility company focused on sustainability and the energy transition. Together they run A2A's twin approach of investing in startups and building ventures from within.
Davide Ritorto is a management engineer from Italy with an international MBA, currently working at Lamborghini. He is what some call an intrapreneur, passionate about open innovation and corporate venturing, and driven by curiosity about how things work and how to make them work even better. Through Open Road Ventures he sets out to inspire and inform other innovators, intrapreneurs and dreamers.
He founded Open Road Ventures as a weekly publication on open innovation and corporate venturing, and The Corporate Venturing Podcast grew out of it. He also mentors startups at Motor Valley Accelerator and sits on the Open Innovation Advisory Board at UC Berkeley Haas.
The Corporate Venturing Podcast is made by Open Road Ventures. The Bundl Venture Club is a partner of the show.
Read the full show notes
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!
Corporate innovation leaders often debate: Should we invest in external startups or build new ventures from within? The answer may be both.
In this episode, I sit down with Giacomo Manzoni, Head of Corporate Venture Building, and Sebastiano Silvestri, Head of Corporate Venture Capital at A2A—Italy’s leading multi-utility company focused on sustainability and energy transition. Together, they share how A2A is harnessing both CVC and CVB to drive long-term innovation and strategic impact.
We discuss:
- Why a2a established both a Corporate Venture Capital and a Corporate Venture Building unit—and how they complement each other.
- How to structure CVC initiatives to deliver not just financial returns but real industrial synergies.
- Building new ventures from within: the talent attraction advantage, IP generation, and the role of C-level sponsorship.
- Metrics that matter: From portfolio performance to internal adoption and cultural shifts.
- The biggest challenges in setting up CVC/CVB programs—governance, talent, and cultural mindset.
- Future trends: AI agents, digital twins of innovation teams, and simplifying startup collaboration through agile procurement.
Whether you’re launching a CVC fund, building a startup from inside your company, or designing a hybrid innovation strategy—this episode offers an in-depth, practical look into how A2A is doing it all.
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