Dario Savoia
CFO / COO
Dario Savoia is a Milan-based chartered accountant and auditor who serves on the investment team of APE, Assietta Private Equity SGR, an Italian lower-mid-market private equity firm, where he focuses on financial structuring, administration and governance of portfolio companies. The firm backs established, profitable Italian SMEs (typically revenue of ~€15, 50M) through growth-capital and leveraged-buyout deals of roughly €3, 8M across sectors such as manufacturing, plastics and packaging, distribution, business services, and media.
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- Full Name
- Dario Savoia
- Title
- Member of the Investment Team, APE – Assietta Private Equity SGR; Partner at Cornaglia & Associati (chartered accountancy firm); Statutory Auditor / Board Director
- Firm
- APE – Assietta Private Equity SGR S.p.A. (Assietta Private Equity)
- Firm Type
- Private equity / growth-capital management company (SGR). *Note: the source stub labeled this "Angel Investors," but every verifiable source describes APE as a lower-mid-market private equity firm, not an angel or seed investor.*
- Investment Stage
- Growth capital (capital development) and leveraged buy-outs — expansion/buyout stage, not seed. Aggregators map this to "Series B and later."
- Check Size
- ~€3–8 million per deal (reported by aggregators as roughly $5–10M)
- Target Company Profile
- Established, profitable, often family-owned SMEs with revenue of ~€15–50 million; the firm takes minority or majority positions
- Sector Focus
- Manufacturing, industrial/machinery, plastics and packaging, distribution, business and consumer services, marketing, publishing and media
- Geographic Focus
- Italy (broader Europe)
- Location
- Milan, Italy
Background
Dario Savoia is a Milan-based chartered accountant and auditor who sits on the investment team of APE – Assietta Private Equity SGR, one of Italy's independent private-equity management companies. He earned a *laurea* in Business Administration (Economia Aziendale) from Università Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi" in Milan, completing his studies around 1996–2001.
He began his career as a financial analyst at AdVenturi S.p.A., an advisory company, before being appointed Administration Manager / COO at Exilles SGR S.p.A. — the roles that most likely underlie the "CFO / COO" descriptor in the source data. Today he is a partner at Cornaglia & Associati, a Milan tax and accountancy advisory firm that is closely associated with APE, and he serves on numerous corporate boards in the industrial and financial sectors as a director and statutory auditor.
At APE, Savoia's contribution centers on financial structuring, administration and governance of portfolio companies rather than deal sourcing alone — a profile consistent with a CFO/COO-type operating and control role. His stated area of focus is increasing company value across the firm's private-equity and corporate-finance activities. His personal industrial network overlaps with the firm's portfolio: he has prior experience connected to Georplast (a plastics/packaging company that is an APE portfolio name), as well as Zeca S.r.l.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Backs established, cash-generative Italian SMEs — typically family-owned businesses with revenue in the ~€15–50M range, rather than early-stage startups.
- Deploys roughly €3–8M per transaction to fund capital development (growth/expansion) and leveraged buy-outs.
- Takes either minority or majority stakes, depending on the situation.
- Concentrates on industrial and traditional sectors: manufacturing and machinery, plastics/packaging, distribution, business and consumer services, marketing, publishing and media.
- Operates on a 3–5 year investment horizon with an acquisition/trade-sale-oriented exit strategy.
- The firm's edge is positioned as combining entrepreneurial, professional and academic competencies with a significant track record in private equity and corporate finance; Savoia's own value-add is financial and operational governance aimed at "increasing company value."
Notable Investments
- SARG — machinery / industrial (B2B); reported as APE's most recent acquisition, on ~4 July 2019.
- Georplast — plastic containers and packaging manufacturer; an APE portfolio company that also appears in Savoia's own professional background.
- Mix — machinery / industrial (B2B) company in the APE portfolio.
- Funds through which APE invests include Fondo Assietta Private Equity III and Fondo Assietta Private Equity IV, alongside vehicles such as Fondo MC2 Impresa, Fondo BCC Private Equity 1, and the "dimensione impresa / network" funds.
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