Mondevo Group buys Milan's Underscore District, powered by its own AI deal engine
What's the deal? Mondevo Group has acquired Underscore DistrictDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Milan-based brand accelerator behind the Magliano, GR10KDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and WOK Store labels. The acquisition closed in August; terms were not disclosed.
Why it matters: Underscore District is the second deal Mondevo has run through Ittikar, its AI platform for family-office private capital. The group also acquired Caruso, the Italian menswear house, in February using the same engine.
What's the endgame? Mondevo announced Ittikar in November 2025 as a global network for family-office private capital, with AI at its core. The platform went live in March, ahead of schedule, and is now open to members beyond the founding group of 100.
How it works: Ittikar lets family offices analyse deals, invest, and raise capital. Its due-diligence engine handled both the Caruso and Underscore District acquisitions from analysis to close. "Ittikar's AI handles the analysis, while Ittikar's investment team reviews each deal before it is published. The final decision rests with the family," said Chris Shann, head of investment and AI enablement.
The platform is built in-house by Mondevo Tech, which runs more than 50 engineers managing 120 AI coding agents. Each member family keeps its data in a sovereign Data Pod in a jurisdiction of its choosing. "The family's data belongs to the family," said Cristiano Motto, co-founder and chief technology officer, adding that the firm built to the strictest European standards — including GDPR, US$0.51, and the EU AI Act — "rather than following the easier ones." (translated from Arabic)
What's different? Each member gets an assistant, Itti, backed by agents specialised in private markets and calibrated to a family's investment profile, or "Capital DNA." The platform screens out unfiltered deal flow, showing members only matching opportunities. "We didn't launch Ittikar with a pitch. We launched it through our own deals and our own capital," said co-founder Fabio Brambilla.
What's next? Ittikar is opening membership in tiers. Work on a second version began in September and will roll out through June 2027, adding portfolio analysis and further capabilities.
The signal: Mondevo is pitching AI as a deal-execution tool, not just a summariser — using its own acquisitions as proof. Founder Hossam Al-Otaibi calls Ittikar "a buy-side platform, built for family offices," compressing deal cycles "from months to days." For a market long reliant on relationships and manual diligence, the test will be whether automated screening can scale across 500 family-office connections without losing the judgement families still want to keep.
Read more: prnewswire.com
Image credit: underscore district
