Micro VCs are a new class of venture capital firms focused on investing small amounts in early-stage startups. Micro VCs typically make initial investments between $50k to $500k in seed or Series A rounds, well below traditional VC firms. Their model is high-volume with more investments at lower dollar amounts compared to normal VCs. Micro VCs embrace lean startup principles and aim to fund promising founders early before valuations and competition heat up. Prominent micro VC firms include Y Combinator, First Round Capital, and Funders Club. They are disrupting the VC industry by reaching founders previously ignored by traditional venture firms focused on later stages. Micro VCs fill a key funding gap and often pass their most promising startups onto bigger VC firms for larger follow-on rounds. The Micro VC model produces more failures but also captures outlier returns from the early high-risk investments that make it big.
he third edition of 0100 International — organized by Zero One Hundred Conferences in partnership with the Milan City Council’s Department of Economic Development and Milano&Partners — brought together the global private markets community for a high-signal, execution-focused gathering held from October 27–29.
François Candelon, Partner for Value Creation & Portfolio Monitoring at Seven2, shares how the firm aligns every investment around a clear “exit animal”—a vision of the company at exit—and uses disciplined execution, AI-driven transformation, and sustainability as levers for resilience and premium valuations. From reengineering core processes with AI to embedding decarbonization into business strategy, Candelon explains how Seven2 builds companies that are not just exit-ready, but future-proof.
Private markets are entering a new era where trust, compliance, and technology converge. While public markets enjoy automation and transparency, private assets still depend on paper-based, fragmented systems. Antonio Chiarello, CEO of Weltix, argues that the next leap forward is not just digitization, but the creation of digital infrastructures that redefine ownership. In this conversation, he discusses why friction is structural rather than technological, how regulation enables innovation, and how programmable liquidity and transparency can channel more private capital into real economic growth.
