The Italian early-stage segment (seed, startup and scaleup stages) registered an important growth in 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the penetration of e-commerce and brought large corporations closer to innovation and startups. The trend that sees international investors focusing on Italian startups (or companies founded by Italians, and based abroad) strongly consolidated in 2020. Moreover, new investors approached the venture capital asset class, such as Italian retail investors and family offices.
According to the report produced by P101 and BeBeez, startups and scaleups based in Italy or founded by Italians (and based abroad) announced 306 fundraising rounds for €780,5 million in 2020, including equity, venture debt and grants (€ 705,5 million considering only equity).
In 2019, 244 Italian start-ups and scale-ups raised € 605,6 million (€ 550,6 million considering equity only). For more info, read: Italian venture capital market: the updated statistics
The report considers all venture capital operators, including funds and equity crowdfunding rounds.
The report highlights that 106 companies announced rounds of more than € 1 million in 2020; among these, 19 companies announced rounds of more than € 10 million, and 10 companies announced rounds of more than € 20 million.
List of rounds of more than € 20 million
| Company | Activity | Investors 2020 Round | Amount 2020 Round |
| Satispay | Fintech | LGT Lightstone, Tencent, Suqare, TIM Ventures, RTI, Banca di Piacenza, Banca Alpi Marittime, Copper Street Capital,Endeavor Catalyst, Greyhound Capital, Banca Valsabbina, Sparkasse, Club degli Investitori di Torino, Banca Etica, Banca Sella Holding,Shark Bites, Smartclub, other private investors | 68 million (93 million with Iccrea Banca’s share acquisition) |
| Supply@Me (UK-based) | Fintech | Club deal clients of Equita SIM and Ceresio SIM, Parrot Capital (Global Capital Plc), other investors, London Stock Exchange | 42 million, 10 million (GBP) |
| Progetto Banca Idea | Fintech | 360 Capital Partners, Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa scarl, Banca Ifis, Banca Sella Holding, Close to Media srl, Famiglia Von Furstenberg, Generali Assicurazioni, Istituto Atesino di Sviluppo spa (ISA), Micheli e Associati, Sergio Bommarito, business angels, other investors | 45 million |
| e-Novia | Financial Services | Convertible bond subscribers (21 mln, including Fin-novia), 26 industrial and financial investors including Brembo, Dompè, Landi Renzo, Fassi, Dainese, Pelliconi, Streparava, Eldor, Rubinetterie Bresciane, Mermec | 30 million |
| ITsART – Netflix della cultura italiana | Media and entertainment | Cdp, Chili, Ministero della Cultura | 28 million |
| Enthera | Biotech | Sofinnova Partners, AbbVie Ventures, BiovelocITA, JDRF T1 Fund, Indaco Venture, 2 private deals organised by Banor SIM and Banca Profilo | 28 million |
| Milkman | Shipping, logistics | Italia 500 (Azimut Libera Impresa SGR), Poste Italiane spa, 360 Capital Partners, P102 (P101 SGR), Vertis Venture 2 Scaleup (Vertis SGR), Boox srl, WorkWave | 25 million |
| PlanetSmartCity (UK-based) | Real Estate | Claudio Costamagna, Davide Malacalza, Equiter spa, Eraldo Bianchessi, Gaudenzio Roveda, Ruben Levi, Stefano Buono, Elysia Capital srl, other investors | 24 million |
| TrueLayer (UK-based) | Software, ICT | Tencent Holdings, Temasek, Northzone, Connect Ventures, Anthemis | 25 million (USD) |
| InnovHeart | Pharma, medical | Genextra, Panakes Partners, Cdp Venture Capital, Indaco Venture Partners | 20 million |
On the exit side, some important divestments are: the acquisition of Tannico by Campari, the exit of Iccrea Banca from Satispay, the acquisition of Beintoo by Publitalia.
The IPO continued to remain a rare exit strategy. In 2020, only one company – TrenDevice – listed on AIM Italy, and another company – Cesynt Advanced Solutions – “crowdlisted” its shares on Euronext Access [“crowdlisting” means listing shares without raising further money from investors, with the aim of providing liquidity to existing investors].
In terms of returns on closed deals, there are very few robust statistics: the only data currently available is the one produced by AIFI/KPMG in July 2020 (on 2019 data), which shows an aggregate gross IRR of 14.8% calculated on 10 deals.
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You can find the P101-BeBeez 2020 Report (in Italian) at the following link: https://www.p101.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/P101-report-venture-capital-2020-completo.pdf