How many investments has BlackSheep Ventures made?

BlackSheep Ventures has 15 tracked investments, including 1 dated in the last 24 months.

What stage does BlackSheep Ventures invest at?

BlackSheep Ventures invests at the Seed, Series A, Series B stages.

What sectors does BlackSheep Ventures focus on?

BlackSheep Ventures focuses on AdTech, AI & Machine Learning, Enterprise Software, Marketing Tech, SaaS.

Where is BlackSheep Ventures located?

BlackSheep Ventures is headquartered in Milan, IT.

Who does BlackSheep Ventures co-invest with?

BlackSheep Ventures most often shares deals with EUREKA! Venture, QED Investors, 645 Ventures, among 17 tracked co-investors.

BlackSheep Ventures

Venture capitaloperating company · company profile

Milan · Seed–Series B · 11 people tracked

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Find your way into BlackSheep Ventures

2,366 people in our graph share verified history with the BlackSheep Ventures team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Ken Chenaultunlockedknows Umberto Bottesini · together at IBM (overlapped)

knows the team · via Scope3

×5knows the team · via IBM

×4knows the team · via Princeton University

knows the team · via Università Bocconi

✨ Fox Verdict

Investment thesis

BlackSheep Ventures invests exclusively in artificial intelligence companies, spanning AI-native software, machine learning infrastructure, domain-specific AI, and AI-enabled platforms. The firm emphasizes vertical and domain-specific AI—systems built for particular industries or professional sectors such as retail, marketing, finance, healthcare, legal, and supply chain—arguing these deliver higher ROI, accuracy, compliance, and defensible moats compared with general-purpose models. It also backs companies advancing European AI sovereignty, supporting AI infrastructure under regional jurisdiction that ensures GDPR compliance and strategic autonomy from non-European providers. The fund describes itself as one of the leading dedicated AI VC funds in Southern Europe and is regulated as an AIFM by the Bank of Italy.

Invests inAdTech AI & Machine Learning Enterprise Software Marketing Tech SaaS Europe Milan

Source: firm website, verified Aug 16, 2026.

Stage

Seed–Series B

Milan, IT

Instruments

Equity

Last 12 months

1 investment

Tracked investments

Team · 11 people

from the firm's website & public directories

Marco Caradonna· President & General Partner· Milan, Lombardy, Italyin

Marco Caradonna is Co-Founder and General Partner at the BlackSheep MadTech Fund at BlackSheep Ventures, where he focuses on venture capital investments in European technology companies working in MadTech, AI, and digital infrastructure. His background spans the media and European digital industries, with work in advertising, digital marketing, ROI measurement, and go-to-market strategy, including adoption of technologies such as third-party ad serving, affiliate marketing, retargeting, video advertising, and real-time bidding. His current investment work includes initiatives centered on domain-specific AI and vertical artificial intelligence applications.

Sandro Moretti· Board Member & General Partner· Milan, Lombardy, Italyin

Sandro Moretti is Co-Founder and General Partner at BlackSheep Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on MadTech startups, where he has served for over three years. He has 20 years of experience in digital marketing and advertising, and previously founded and managed a digital marketing agency in Italy.

Umberto Bottesini· Co-Founder· Milan, Lombardy, Italyin

Umberto Bottesini is a technology entrepreneur and investor with more than 20 years in the digital industry, having founded and exited several companies. He began his career at consulting firms including IBM and Teradata, joined the Fullsix Group (WPP) in 2005, and in 2008 co-founded and led Simple Agency, which grew into a large Italian digital marketing agency before its acquisition by Dentsu; he later held data and digital leadership roles at Amnet and the wider group. He co-founded BlackSheep Ventures and is Founder and CEO of Qreative, an investment firm focused on emerging technologies and automation, and has taught digital communication at ALMA – Università Cattolica of Milan.

Marcello Giordani· Partner· Atlanta Metropolitan Areain

Marcello Giordani is a Junior Partner at BlackSheep Ventures, where he focuses on scouting, executing, and managing venture capital investments. His experience includes investment analysis, negotiation, and execution, having screened over 3,000 startups and worked on more than 100 investment and divestment operations representing over €40M in investment volume.

Antonio Dettoli· CFO· Milan, Lombardy, Italyin

Brian O'Kelly· Advisor· Brooklyn, New York, United Statesin

Brian O'Kelley is the co-founder and CEO of Scope3, a company building infrastructure for agentic advertising, and architected the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) for agent-executed advertising transactions. He previously co-founded and led AppNexus through its $1.6 billion sale to AT&T in 2018, served as CTO of Right Media through its $850 million acquisition by Yahoo in 2007, co-founded the supply chain technology company Waybridge, and sat on the board of LiveRamp. He holds 17 patents, authored the open source Prebid Server project, and earned a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.

Gustav Mellentin· Advisorin

Alexis Fortune· Executive Officer

Brad Cowdroy· Director

Jonathan Bull· Director

Ralph Woodford· Director

Founder mafia

4 people who came through BlackSheep Ventures went on to found or lead other companies.

Brian O'KellyAdvisorFounded Scope3 +1 Umberto BottesiniCo-FounderFounded Blacksheep Sandro MorettiBoard Member & General PartnerFounded Blacksheep Marco CaradonnaPresident & General PartnerFounded Blacksheep

What they invest in

from 11 of 15 portfolio companies

AI & Machine Learning ×8SaaS ×8Marketing Tech ×7AdTech ×4Enterprise Software ×3E-commerce ×2Cybersecurity ×1Data & Infrastructure ×1

HQs:United Kingdom×2Italy×2Switzerland×1Latvia×1United Kingdom×1United States×1

Investments · 15 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

AdTonosadtonos.com in 𝕏

AdTonos provides programmatic audio advertising solutions for monetizing podcasts, radio streams, music streams, and smart speaker content through real-time ad replacement and interactive voice-based ads.

AdTechMarketing TechMedia & EntertainmentLondon, UK

Co-investorsCofounderZone Curious Capital GmbH & Co. KG

Anonymised

AI-driven data platform helping publishers and advertisers reach and measure incremental audiences with zero personal data disclosed.

Circeuscirceus.com in

An AI-native holding company that acquires and develops B2B software businesses serving the everyday economy, operating as a permanent investor and operator that applies AI to help portfolio companies compound over time.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Co-investorsAvonmore Developments Founders Factory Founders Factory NY NFX QED Investors

Connected Stories

AI-driven creative optimization and dynamic content personalization for digital advertising at scale.

Domyndomyn.com in 𝕏Feb 2026

Domyn offers an integrated, chip-to-frontend AI framework that lets organizations run private, air-gapped AI infrastructure with full control over their data, models, and applications.

AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareMilan

Uljan Sharka(Executive Officer, Director)in

Co-investorsNovaCapital Rabo Corporate Venturing

Infleadinflead.com in

Kolsquare provides an influencer marketing platform that lets brands and agencies search millions of creators by niche, socio-demographic data and compliance score, then plan, manage and measure campaigns.

AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaS

Kleeckskleecks.com in 𝕏

Kleecks is a reverse proxy-based SaaS platform that uses AI and automation to optimize ecommerce and digital properties, addressing SEO, performance, and conversion challenges without requiring code changes.

AdTechAI & Machine LearningE-commerceMarketing TechSaaSLondon, GB

Marco Bezzi(Founder & CPO)Marco Baricevic(Founder & CTO)inAlex Giorgi(Founder & CIO)in

Co-investorsAxon Partners Group EUREKA! Venture

Nexoyanexoya.com in 𝕏

Nexoya provides an AI-driven marketing optimization platform that reallocates cross-channel advertising budgets and bids on a weekly basis using attribution data.

AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaSZürich, CH

Manuel Dietrich(Founder)inMarco Hochstrasser(Founder)in

Co-investorsSICTIC

Principled Intelligence

AI governance and responsible AI framework platform for enterprise risk and compliance teams.

Qapla'qapla.it

Qapla' provides shipment tracking and post-shipping communication tools for eCommerce businesses, covering delivery monitoring across multiple couriers and related logistics data.

E-commerceLogistics & Supply ChainSaaS

Roiboxroibox.com in 𝕏

Roibox is a PPC analytics platform that enables advertisers to analyze campaign performance at granular geographic levels to improve return on ad spend.

AdTechData & InfrastructureMarketing TechSaaS

SCIBIDSscibids.com in 𝕏

Scibids offers AI-powered optimization for programmatic advertising campaigns, enabling brands to automate bidding strategies and achieve custom performance metrics.

AdTechAI & Machine LearningMarketing Tech

Co-investorsEUREKA! Venture Iris Capital

Shop Circleshopcircle.co in 𝕏

Shop Circle is a holding company that acquires and modernizes B2B enterprise software businesses, applying AI to operate and grow the companies it owns.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSLondon, GB

Gian Maria Gramondi(Founder)in

Co-investors3VC 645 Ventures CDP Venture Capital EUREKA! Venture Primo Ventures QED Investors +3 more

Spokispoki.it in 𝕏

Spoki is an Italian Customer Experience Management platform built on Meta's official WhatsApp Business API, unifying AI chatbots, marketing automation, broadcasts, conversational CRM, and Voice AI across WhatsApp, Voice, SMS, and Email in a single inbox.

AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaS

Streamwisestreamwise.ai

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Israeli AI-based start-up Dondy acquired by UK holding company Circeus | The Jerusalem Post

Circeus · jpost.com · Aug 20, 2026

British software platform Shop Circle extends its Series B to €84 million to accelerate M&A | EU-Startups

Shop Circle · eu-startups.com · Sep 16, 2025

Frequently asked questions

How many investments has BlackSheep Ventures made?: BlackSheep Ventures has 15 tracked investments, including 1 dated in the last 24 months.
What stage does BlackSheep Ventures invest at?: BlackSheep Ventures invests at the Seed, Series A, Series B stages.
What sectors does BlackSheep Ventures focus on?: BlackSheep Ventures focuses on AdTech, AI & Machine Learning, Enterprise Software, Marketing Tech, SaaS.
Where is BlackSheep Ventures located?: BlackSheep Ventures is headquartered in Milan, IT.
Who does BlackSheep Ventures co-invest with?: BlackSheep Ventures most often shares deals with EUREKA! Venture, QED Investors, 645 Ventures, among 17 tracked co-investors.

Images

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