According to the report “Business Angel in Italy: the impact of angel investing“, realised by Growth Capital, Italian Tech Alliance, the Social Innovation Monitor of the Politecnico di Torino and the University of East Anglia (UEA), there are 1,671 Business Angels (BA) in Italy, 66% of which belong to one of 33 Italian Business Angel Groups.
Almost 70% of the identified BAs are located in northern Italy. Lombardy is the region with the highest number of Business Angels, followed by Piedmont and Lazio. The typical Italian BA is a man (86%).
The average age of BAs in Italy is 52, ranging from a minimum of 23 years to a maximum of 87. 43% of Italian BAs hold a second-level master’s degree, 40% a bachelor’s degree and 4% a PhD; only 6% have a diploma.
Regarding the work experience, the majority of BAs are managers or employees of a private company (45%), followed by entrepreneurs (33%); only 3% are retired.
The report also analyses the investment rounds closed in Italy in the period 2018-2022.
Out of a total of 1,241 investment rounds, 129 rounds (about 10% of the total) included BAs among their investors.In terms of capital, these represent about 20% of the total capital invested in Italy, percentage that is growing year on year (from 5.77% in 2018 to 28.3% in 2022).
The overall invested capital by BAs in the period 2018-2022 is € 45 million.
When participating in a round, BAs cover on average 5% of the round. The percentage rises to around 10% if megarounds (above € 100 million) are excluded.
BAs tend to invest mainly in two sectors: Digital (27%) and Life Sciences (25%).
Moreover, the report highlights the positive impact of angel investing on startups, taking into consideration four variables and comparing 2018 with 2021: growth in turnover, number of employees, EBITDA and intangible assets. All four variables show the positive effect generated by companies with BAs as investors, which grew much faster than the others: for example, companies with BAs quintupled their turnover, compared to other companies that tripled it in the same period.
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For more info, the report (in Italian) is available at the following link: https://socialinnovationmonitor.com/report-impatto-business-angel-italiani/