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Over the last 15 years or so , as European venture working capital shift into a higher gear , one way to help a nation ’s ecosystem brandish was to endue in founders from that commonwealth , disregardless of where they were base . This would aid re - patriate the entrepreneurial mindset back home . In Europe , the approach was pioneered in part by Paris - basedKima Ventures . Now a new speculation business firm hopes to replicate that estimate from Italy .
Vento , one of Italy ’s most active private former - degree VCs , is launching its second fund , heavily - capped at € 75 million , specifically to back Italian inauguration founders at place and abroad .
The sphere - agnostic fund originated from the organizers ofItalian Tech Week(ITW ) , held each year in Turin , which has hosted the like of Sam Altman , Reid Hoffman , and Elon Musk , among others .
The case was originally launch by Fiat home scion John Elkann , chairman of Vento , as well as chairman of Stellantis ( the parent company of Fiat ) and Exor ( the holding troupe of the Agnelli family , which check Fiat and other assets ) .
clearly for someone of his status , Elkann has an across-the-board meshing both in Europe and Silicon Valley , which he helps bestow to ITW . So it ’s perhaps no coincidence that Vento ’s Investment Committee include such tech diligence veterans as Diego Piacentini , Mike Volpi ( formerly of Index Ventures ) , and Jean de La Rochebrochard . Ironically , Rochebrochard late joined the very same Kima Ventures that Vento hopes to emulate , after being controversiallyremovedfrom Newwave , a French venture kit , last year .
To date , Vento has already empower in 100 startup , include Bee , JetHR , and Qomodo . Fund II design to invest in 375 investments over five class , enounce the ship’s company .
Diyala D’Aveni , CEO of Vento , tell TechCrunch over a call that “ Italy is quite behind compared to other European countries , but we cogitate the trajectory is the same as the others . So that ’s why we ’re doing this . Italian Tech Week is a way for us to get people from outside of Italy , on the one side , to push unbelievable investors to meet Italian founders and see the potential of the Italian ecosystem , and inspire the talent in Italy to build their own company . We think the fact that there are not many success tale in Italy is kind of preventing the ecosystem to grow . ”
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Added D’Aveni , “ There ’s no deficiency of upper-case letter . It ’s a lack of company , but we just need some success story , and then the whole flywheel will kick off , and we will see what we project in France . ”
Italian Tech Week feeds usefully into this scheme , allow Vento to measure over 3,500 startup that apply to seem at the consequence , maintain a selective 2.5 % conversion pace with a standardized € 150,000 tag sizing , and with some follow - on investment being made .
But what was the problem with previous Italian tech father that Elkann felt this fund would work ?
“ When we launch Vento ’s first fund in 2022 , we recognized that Italy ’s technological and entrepreneurial potential was significantly underserved , ” he told TechCrunch .
“ Italian founders have always demo particular … entrepreneurial heart , but the ecosystem was not there . Vento was make to address this gap by providing not just capital , but a comprehensive platform that combine direct investing , venture construction , and internet ontogeny through Italian Tech Week . ”
However , Italian companionship constabulary is often considered less friendly to startup founders compared to U.K. or U.S. companionship vehicles . Does he bear the startups that Vento monetary fund to be Italy - domiciliate or will it be agnostical ?
“ Our elemental committedness is to key exceptional Italian founders and support them in their global entrepreneurial journeying , ” he say . “ Italy is spend a penny significant footstep to become increasingly competitive in the outside engineering landscape painting , and we are convinced that soon these regulatory differences between land will become less and less relevant . ”
To be sightly , Italy ’s technical school scene is improving . harmonise toDealroom data , venture capital investing in Italian startups totaled $ 5.72 billion across the last five years ( 2020 to 2024 ) , a more than threefold increase from the premature five class , when it bump off only $ 1.7 billion .
D’Aveni added that there were already plans to reach out internationally : “ We already have a meshing of founders outside of Italy who are sending us flock , as well as micro - communities of Italians in New York , London , Berlin , and Paris , among others . ”
