Smartwage Closes Pre‑Seed Round with Step Fund, the Venture‑Capital Arm of ACP SGR

martwage, an Italian fintech, announces the closure of a pre‑seed round led by Step Fund – the venture‑capital fund managed by Alternative Capital Partners SGR, dedicated to seed‑stage investments in highly‑technological Italian startups. The company aims to revolutionise traditional corporate welfare by allowing employees to freely spend their welfare credit at any merchant, through a platform that combines artificial intelligence with digital‑payment tools.

The round comprises a €2 million investment: an initial €1 million and a further €1 million commitment from Step Fund, to be disbursed in calibrated tranches that will match Smartwage’s cash‑flow needs and development milestones. This marks Step Fund’s second investment in its first quarter of operation.

Step Fund is managed by Michele Novelli, Roberto Montandon, Gennaro Tesone and Maria Imbesi – professionals who, after building and scaling large‑tech companies across Europe, have amassed more than a decade of experience in startup and innovative‑company investing, with over one hundred transactions in Italy and abroad and more than fifteen exits.

The project originates from an idea by Marco Gambardella, founder and CEO of Smartwage, together with co‑founders Felice Cupane (CTO) and Francesco Varuzza (COO). The team brings complementary expertise in technology and finance. The three founders share a common background at Plurima – a company founded and developed by Gambardella, with Cupane and Varuzza serving on its board – which was successfully exited to Italiana Assicurazioni in 2023. Advisors Lorenzo Ait and Delia di Bona will support the founding team on commercial development, strategy and fundraising.

A €7 Billion Market Still Lacking Smart Solutions

Corporate welfare in Italy is one of the main levers for tax efficiency and the valorizzatio​n of human capital, representing a market now worth more than €7 billion (benefits and meal vouchers) yet reaching fewer than 50 % of employees. Companies that adopt structured welfare solutions see productivity gains of up to 30 % and an average per‑capita revenue increase of 2.1 % for each new service introduced. This Italian landscape sits within a broader European market of €80 billion, accounting for 32.59 % of the global total.

However, each year more than 20 % of the welfare budget made available by employers goes unused: the rigidity of current models forces employees to operate within a limited network of agreements. Smartwage was created to overturn this paradigm, giving employees the freedom to spend their welfare credit at merchants of their choice.

The proprietary technology turns welfare into a dynamic, personalised system by integrating digital‑payment instruments (cards and bank transfers) with an AI‑powered assistant that acts as a “welfare coach” for both employees and employers, aiming to maximise the wellbeing impact of the investment.

Michele Novelli, Partner at Step Fund, commented:
“We are investing in a high‑ calibre team we have already believed in previously and that has repeatedly proven its capabilities. Today, 20 % of corporate‑welfare budgets remain idle and, according to our estimates, 50 % of workers still lack a dedicated plan – a real paradox in a country where 62 % of employees struggle to make ends meet. This critical gap can finally be addressed by an intuitive, user‑centric technology such as Smartwage. The deal aligns perfectly with Step’s investment thesis, which focuses on the deep transformation of markets driven by Artificial Intelligence.”

Felice Cupane, CTO of Smartwage, added:
“We have designed Smartwage as a scalable technological infrastructure capable of merging regulated payments and AI into a single coherent system. Our goal is to reduce regulatory complexity through automation, data analytics and continuous model optimisation. This round enables us to further invest in architecture, security and the refinement of our AI engines.”