The Italian early stage segment (seed, start-up and scale-up stages) registered a modest growth in 2019.
According to the report produced by P101 and BeBeez, start-ups and scale-ups based in Italy or founded by Italians (and based abroad) announced fundraising rounds for € 605,6 million in 2019, including equity, debt and grants (€ 550,6 million considering only equity).
These rounds involved 244 companies participated by institutional investors, which have raised together more than € 850 million since the beginning of their operations.
In 2018, 179 Italian start-ups and scale-ups raised € 510 million (€ 480 million considering equity only). For more info, read: Italian venture capital investments are (finally) increasing: the market in 2018
The report considers all venture capital operators, including funds and equity crowdfunding rounds.
For more info on the crowdfunding market, read: Italian crowdfunding: the 2019 statistics of CrowdfundingBuzz
The report highlights that 31 companies announced rounds of more than 3 million in 2019, raising in total approx. € 491 million; among these, 10 companies announced rounds of more than 10 million, raising in total € 343 million.
List of rounds of more than € 10 million
| Company | Activity | Investors 2019 Round | Amount 2019 Round |
| Casavo | Real estate instant buying | Greenoaks Capital, International Venture Debt Fund, Project A Ventures, Picus Capital, 360 Capital Partners, Kervis Asset Management, Boost Heroes, Marco Pescarmona, Rancilio Cube | 50 million |
| Depop (UK-based) | Social shopping | General Atlantic, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Balderton Capital, Creandum, Octopus Ventures, TempoCap, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Red Circle Investments e Lumar | 62 million |
| Soldo (Irish-based) | Prepaid company cards & automated expenses | Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Connect Ventures, Accel, InReach Ventures, U-Start e R204 Partner and private investors | 61 million |
| Talent Garden | Networking & digital training | StarTIP srl (TIP spa), Angelini, D’Amico, Dompè, Drago, Foglia, Ginatta, Holland, Luti, Monti, Pittini, Rovati, Indaco Ventures, Club degli Investitori, BeConsulting, Social Capital, Digital Magics, 500Startups, Endeavor Catalyst | 44 million |
| TrueLayer (UK-based) | Open banking software | Tencent Holdings e Temasek, Northzone, Connect Ventures e Anthemis | 35 million |
| brumbrum | Car e-commerce | Accel, Bonsai Venture Capital, e.ventures, United Ventures | 20 million |
| Uala | Saloon beauty network | Immobiliare.it, Club Italia Investimenti 2 | 15 million |
| Freeda | Media | Alven, U-Start, Endeavor Catalys and Unicredit minibond (€ 2,5 million) | 15 million |
| Genenta Science | Biotech | Qianzhan Investment Management, Fidim, Bromioli family, Fumagalli family, club deal Banca Esperia’s private clients, business angels | 13 million, 20 million |
| Pillo Health | Smart health and wellness solutions | Stanley Black & Decker, Samsung Ventures, BioAdvance, Hikma Ventures, Hackensack Meridien Health System’s Innovation Center Fund and Civilization Ventures | 11 million |
On the exit side, some important divestment are: the acquisition of Viralize by Vetrya SPA, the acquisition of Neutrino by Coinbase, the exit of H-Farm from the Depop.
In the first half of 2020, the Italian Venture Capital market unsurprisingly suffered from the Covid-19 impact. According to the first statistics published by ScaleIT, the capital raised by Italian start-ups in H1 2020 was 23% lower compared to H1 2019 (€ 240 million in H1 2020 compared to € 313 in H1 2019).
The figures reflect a drop in both mega-rounds (-32%) and in the capital invested by international operators (-32%; € 74 million in H1 2020 compared to € 109 million in H1 2019).
Let’s see how the rest of the year goes…
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You can find the P101-BeBeez 2019 Report (in Italian) at the following link: https://bebeez.it/files/2020/08/P101-report-venture-capital-2019-completo_def.pdf