Over the previous 15 years or so, as European enterprise capital has moved to larger gear, a method to assist the nation’s ecosystems thrive has been to spend money on the nation’s founders, no matter the place they’re. This helps carry the entrepreneur’s mindset again to house. In Europe, this method was partially pioneered primarily based in Paris Kima Ventures. Now, the brand new enterprise firm needs to copy the thought from Italy.
Ventone in every of Italy’s most lively personal early VCSs is launching a second fund that was hard-capped for 75 million euros, notably to assist the founders of Italian startups at house and overseas.
The sector and protest funds have been born from organizers of Italian Tech WeekIt’s held yearly in Turin, internet hosting Sam Altman, Reed Hoffman, Elon Musk and extra.
The occasion was initially launched by Vento Chairman Fiat Household Scion John Elkann, in addition to Stellantis (the mum or dad firm of Fiat) and Exor (the holding firm of the Agnelli household that manages Fiat and different belongings).
Naturally, for somebody in his place, Elkan has an in depth community in each Europe and Silicon Valley. It’s in all probability no coincidence, subsequently, that Vento’s funding committee consists of veterans from the high-tech business, corresponding to Diego Piacentini, Mike Volpi (previously Index Ventures), and Jean de La Rochebrochard. Paradoxically, Rochebrochard not too long ago joined the identical Kima Ventures, which Vento hopes to emulate after it’s controversial delete Final 12 months, we began with New Wave, a French enterprise costume.
Up to now, Vento has already invested in 100 startups, together with Bee, Jethr and Qomodo. Fund II is planning to spend money on 375 investments over 5 years, the corporate mentioned.
Diyala D’Aveni, CEO of Vento, mentioned, “I believe Italy is approach behind different European international locations, however the trajectory is identical because the others. That is why we’re doing this. Tech Week in Italy is a approach to carry non-Italian individuals to 1 aspect, and encourage unimaginable traders to fulfill Italian founders, see the chances of Italian ecosystems, and construct their very own corporations. I believe the truth that Italy would not have many success tales is like stopping ecosystems from rising.”
D’Aveni has been added. “There is not any lack of capital. It is a lack of corporations, however just some success tales are wanted, and the entire flywheel begins and also you get what you noticed in France.”
Italian Tech Week has been usefully feeding this technique, with Vento assessing over 3,500 startups utilized to look at occasions, sustaining a selective 2.5% conversion charge with a standardized ticket measurement of 150,000 euros, and a number of other subsequent investments being made.
However what was the difficulty of the earlier Italian know-how founders that Elkan felt the fund can be resolved?
“Once we launched Vento’s first fund in 2022, we realized that Italy’s technical and entrepreneurial potential is considerably underserved,” he advised TechCrunch.
“The Italian founders have at all times demonstrated distinctive … entrepreneurial spirit, however the ecosystem wasn’t there. Vento was created to deal with this hole by offering a complete platform that mixes direct funding, enterprise constructing and community growth, not simply capital, by Italian Tech Week.”
Nonetheless, Italian firm legal guidelines typically don’t provide a lot benefit for startup founders in comparison with automobiles from UK or US corporations. Does he count on Vento’s funds to rule Italy, or will it change into an agnostic?
“Our predominant dedication is to determine distinctive Italian founders and assist them on their world entrepreneurial journey,” he mentioned. “Italy is making nice strides to change into more and more aggressive within the worldwide know-how state of affairs. We’re assured that quickly there might be much less and fewer variations in these laws between the international locations.”
To be honest, the Italian tech scene has been improved. Based on Deal Room Knowledgeenterprise capital investments in Italian startups totaled $5.72 billion over the previous 5 years (2020-2024), reaching simply $1.7 billion, up greater than 3 times over the previous 5 years.
D’Aveni added that he already has plans to achieve out internationally. “We have already got a community of non-Italian founders who ship out Italian micro-communities corresponding to New York, London, Berlin and Paris.”
