In 2023, venture capital investments amounted to € 1.17 billion, down 37% from € 1.86 billion in 2022 and a slightly decreasing number of rounds (339 in 2022 vs. 325 in 2023).
These are the numbers estimated by the Observatory on Venture Capital in Italy, conducted by Growth Capital, a tech investment bank in the venture capital industry, in collaboration with Italian Tech Alliance, the Italian association of venture capital, innovation investors and innovative start-ups and SMEs.
The decrease in investments is mainly attributable to the lower incidence of mega rounds (17% vs 38%), excluding which 2023 (€ 976m) is slightly lower than 2022 (€ 1.14bn) and higher than 2021 (€ 895m).
In 2023, the Italian VC returned to the slower and steadier maturity trajectory it had been on since 2019, which can be seen in the improvement of key metrics such as the number of exits, international investor participation and median round size.
Smart City is the sector with the highest number of rounds (48), followed by Deep Tech (45) and Software (42). Regarding the amount raised, DeepTech also leads the 2023 ranking with € 251 million, followed by Software with € 199 million and Life Sciences with € 186 million.
Software and Smart City are historically the sectors with the most rounds, while Fintech is the sector that has historically raised the most, followed by Smart City.
Another element that emerges is that the average size of the rounds increases in the DeepTech and Media sectors while it decreases in Fintech and Digital.
The following were the top 5 deals of 2023:
In 2023, the number of active investors decreased compared to 2022 and increased slightly compared to 2021, with 35% of active investors coming from abroad. The Observatory shows that an international investor was present in the largest rounds.
CDP Venture Capital was again the most active investor in 2023, with 52 deals, followed by Exor Seeds/Vento Ventures with 24 and Azimut with 21.
Lastly, 2023 marked an all-time high in exits, totalling 44 (41 M&A transactions and 3 IPOs), up 16% compared to 2022.
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The full report is available at the following link: https://www.italiantechalliance.com/_files/ugd/ffd03c_64441670300142e1943b1acfa5db5ef6.pdf