Vento deploys a new fund of 75 million euros for the Italian founders, no matter where they live
In the past 15 years approximately, when European venture capital moved in a higher speed, a way of helping the ecosystem of a nation to prosper was to invest in founders of this country, it doesn’t matter where they were based. This would help rebuild the entrepreneurial mentality at home. In Europe, the approach was launched in part by Paris Kima Ventures. Now, a new venture capital company hopes to reproduce this idea of Italy.
VentoOne of the private VCS in the first most active first stage in Italy, launched its second fund, at 75 million euros, specifically to support the founders of Italian startup in the country and abroad.
The sector-childhood fund is from the organizers of Italian technology weekHeld every year in Turin, who welcomed people like Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk, among others.
The event was initially launched by Fiat Family Scion John Elkann, president of Vento, but also president of Stellantis (the parent company of Fiat) and Exor (the Portfolio Company of the Agnelli family, which controls Fiat and other assets).
Naturally, for someone from their status, Elkann has a vast network both in Europe and Silicon Valley, which he helps to bring to ITW. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the Vento investment committee includes veterans of the technological industry such as Diego Piacentini, Mike Volpi (formerly Ventures Index) and Jean de La Rochebrochard. Ironically, Rochebrochard recently joined the same Kima companies that Vento hopes to imitate, after being controversial deleted From Newwave, a French outfit, last year.
To date, Vento has already invested in 100 startups, including Bee, Jethr and Qomodo. Fund II plans to invest in 375 investments over five years, said the company.
Diyala d’Aveni, CEO of Vento, told Techcrunch about an appeal: “Italy is completely late compared to other European countries, but we believe that the trajectory is the same as the others. This is why we do that. The week of Italian technology is a way for us to bring people outside Italy, on the one hand, to push incredible investors to meet Italian founders and see the potential of the Italian ecosystem, and inspire talent in Italy to build their own companies. We believe that the fact that there are not many stories of success in Italy is in a way to prevent the ecosystem from growing. »»
D’Aveni added: “There is no lack of capital. It’s a lack of businesses, but we just need a few success stories, then all the wheel will launch, and we will see what we have seen in France. »»
Italian technology week usefully fuels this strategy, allowing Vento to assess more than 3,500 startups that appear to appear during the event, maintaining a selective conversion rate of 2.5% with a standardized size of € 150,000, and with follow -up investments.
But what was the problem with the previous founders of Italian technology that Elkann considered that this fund would resolve?
“When we launched the first Vento fund in 2022, we recognized that the technological and entrepreneurial potential of Italy was considerably served,” he told Techcrunch.
“The Italian founders have always demonstrated an exceptional … entrepreneurial spirit, but the ecosystem was not there. Vento was created to fill this gap by providing not only capital, but a complete platform that combines direct investments, business reinforcements and network development during Italian technology week. »»
However, the law of Italian companies is often considered less favorable to the founders of startups compared to the vehicles of the United Kingdom or American companies. Does he expect the startups that Vento funds are domestic in Italy or will they be agnostic?
“Our main commitment is to identify the exceptional Italian founders and to support them in their world entrepreneurial journey,” he said. “Italy makes significant progress to become more and more competitive in the international technological landscape, and we are convinced that soon these regulatory differences between countries will become less and less relevant.”
To be fair, the technological scene of Italy improves. According to Data on domainsInvestment in venture capital in Italian startups has totaled $ 5.72 billion in the past five years (2020 to 2024), an increase of more than three years compared to the previous five years, when it has reached only $ 1.7 billion.
Aveni added that it was already planned to reach out to the international: “We already have a network of founders outside of Italy who send us offers, as well as micro-community of Italians in New York, London, Berlin and Paris, among others.”
