According to IBAN (the Italian Business Angels Network Association), the Italian angel investing market has firmly consolidated its role within the country’s innovation ecosystem. In 2025, total capital deployed by Italian Business Angels – both independently and through co-investment schemes with Venture Capital funds – reached approximately €920 million. This represents a 22.3% year-on-year increase, highlighting a robust mid-term growth trajectory for innovative Italian startups.
Looking strictly at capital invested independently by Business Angels (excluding external venture funds and equity crowdfunding), the total amount reached €73.7 million across 74 target companies. This figure remains highly consistent with the €74.5 million recorded in 2024, whilst representing nearly double the €39.3 million tracked in 2023.
The vast majority of transactions tracked by the IBAN Survey involved collaboration, with 81% of deals executed in syndication (up from 73% in 2024). Joining forces in investment syndicates allows Business Angels to pool larger financial contributions per deal, optimise transaction costs, and significantly mitigate individual portfolio risks.
The market continues to mature, moving towards significantly larger deal sizes. In 2025, the startup stage covered 58% of transactions, while the seed stage accounted for 42%. Transactions valued between €500,000 and €2 million made up 39% of total deals, while the share of large-scale rounds exceeding €2 million grew to 16%, effectively doubling the 8% recorded in 2023.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector confirmed its historical dominance as the primary area of interest for Business Angels, having benefited the most from investment over the past eight years. Within ICT, the investment composition reveals a clear preference for Enterprise Technologies, which account for 64% of operations, compared to Digital Consumer Services at 36%.
While ICT itself attracts 30% of total investments, the latest data highlights greater sectoral diversification compared to recent years. Specifically, ICT is followed by:
- Food & Beverage (14%)
- Financial Services (12%)
- Other Services (11%)
- Healthcare (9%)
- Consumer Goods (7%)
In 2025, 50% of survey respondents stated their intention to maintain a constant share of their personal wealth dedicated to startup investments over the coming years. Meanwhile, 35% expressed an intention to increase their allocation, and only 15% anticipated a reduction. Compared to 2024 figures, this represents a partial recovery in the appetite for scaling up investment allocations, which had previously stalled at 21%.
The profile and characteristics of the typical Business Angel remained substantially stable in 2025:
- Age: The most represented age bracket continues to be between 45 and 69 years old, accounting for over 70% of the sample. There is a particular concentration between 45 and 49 years old (21%), and within the 55–59 and 60–64 age classes (both at 18%).
- Education: Educational attainment remains exceptionally high, with 82% of respondents holding a postgraduate university degree or equivalent higher qualification.
- Geography: The geographical distribution of residence confirms a clear predominance in Northern Italy (73%), followed by Central Italy (24%), and a residual share in the South (3%), aligning with the historical territorial concentration of the country’s angel investing community.
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The report (in Italian) is available at the following link: https://www.iban.it/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SurveyIBAN2025_V3.pdf