On 20 June the Open Summit stops in the capital, where 11.6% of the startups active at a national level are based. But how many people invest in the most promising companies? From space tech to digital health, here are the companies that support technologies and talents in the area, in Italy and in Europe
We inaugurate the SIOS24 Summer week – in Rome, on 20 June, in the Gazometro spaces – with an in-depth look at the Venture Capital in Lazio, a region that plays a leading role in the ecosystem. According to the 2023 annual report, drawn up by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, 13% of the startups surveyed nationally are based in the area. Most are located in the capital, where 11.6% of Italian startups operate (only in Milan are there more at the provincial level: almost 20% of the national figure). We are talking about around 1700 innovative Roman companies.
Many investors and protagonists of the Roman ecosystem will speak at SIOS24 Summer (here you will find some of their comments on the eve of the event). There are several players in the VC world based in Lazio and who have dozens of startups in their portfolio, active in various fields: from space tech to delivery, from artificial intelligence to green mobility. In this article we present the list (listed in alphabetical order) with the profiles of the subjects involved with the capital under management in investing in startups and scaleups.
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Angelini Ventures
This is the Corporate Venture Capital fund of the Angelini group. With a financial commitment of 300 million euros, the financial vehicle is investing mainly in startups in the biotech and digital health fields, with a geographical focus that includes Europe and North America. Its most recent investment was in Nouscom, a biotech startup co-founded by Riccardo Cortese and based in Switzerland, active in the field of immuno-oncology, and which closed the Series C round worth almost 76 million euros (Angelini Ventures participated with a 7 million ticket).
Archangel AdVenture
It is an investment company that has chosen to focus on supporting artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality startups. Based in Rome, this Venture Capital firm invested a few months ago in Kilogram, an Italian startup active in the foodtech and wellness sector, with a pre-seed round of 150 thousand euros. The company is led by Ciro Di Carluccioamong the cofounders of Archangel AdVenture.
Barcamper Ventures Lazio
This is an investment fund managed by Primo Ventures which operates as a parallel fund to Barcamper Ventures. As stated on the portal, the individual has completed the investment period and now only carries out follow-on operations in the companies in his portfolio. Among the established criteria is that the startup must have at least one headquarters and operational activities in Lazio. Among the portfolio companies in Barcamper Ventures Lazio appear Codemotion, Quicare And WordLift.
CDP Venture Capital
CDP Venture Capital is the largest and most important VC entity in Italy and among the most relevant in the European ecosystem. Present in Rome, as well as throughout Italy with the various acceleration programs, it has been the driving force in the investment scene in Italy for years. The industrial plan presented a few months ago by the CEO and general manager Agostino Scornajenchi – who will be a guest at SIOS24 Summer on June 20 – has set the goal of 8 billion euros under management by 2028.
Venture
FARE Venture intervenes in the risk capital of SMEs and startups and is in turn divided into Lazio Venture and Innova Venture. The Lazio Region, through the “FARE Lazio” Fund of Funds, managed by Lazio Innova, has put in place various credit and investment tools to encourage the growth and development of the regional ecosystem. Innova Venture it is a generalist fund, with a total endowment of 21.8 million euros; Lazio Venture instead, it has the availability of 44 million euros financed by community funds from the POR FESR 2014/2020 and regional funds from the POC Lazio 2014/2020 of the Lazio Region.
Fitec Lazio
Fitec Lazio is a fund part of the Italian Investment Fund launched in 2019, parallel to FITEC (Italian Technology and Growth Fund) and is aimed at those operations on companies based in the regional territory. The subject is focused on verticals such as ICT, and industrial innovation, as well as medtech, foodtech and cleantech. This is an 18 million euro fund, of which 7 are currently invested. The portfolio currently includes the Termo company.
Lumen Ventures
It is one of the Venture Capital funds present in Rome, focused on the seed phase of startups. His is an agnostic approach, but with particular attention to sectors such as fintech, insurtech and healthtech. A peculiarity of this entity is that it aims to invest in founders and entrepreneurs with already experience behind them. Participate with tickets ranging from 500 thousand euros to one million. They have companies such as Xtra and Serenis in their portfolio.
LVenture Group
LVenture Group is a Venture Capital entity listed in Bag Italian which deals with investing in innovative digital companies. The process begins inside its accelerator LUISS EnLabs, and generates profit from exit operations, mainly IPOs and M&A. He has more than 100 startups in his portfolio, having accelerated over 130 of them; total investments reached 24 million euros with almost 2 thousand new jobs created.
Pi Campus
Based in Rome, Pi Campus is a VC entity that invests in early stage companies (tickets between 50 thousand and 500 thousand euros). There are 65 that he has contributed to growing with an aggregate valuation of the entire portfolio that exceeds 2 billion euros. Founded by Marco Trombetti, Isabelle Andrieu And Gianluca Granero, Pi Campus was originally the investment arm of Translated, a translation service that uses artificial intelligence to help professional translators. Pi Campus was subsequently structured as a Venture Capital company.
United Ventures II Lazio
It is an investment fund co-financed by Lazio region through the FARE Lazio fund of funds. It has an endowment of 10 million euros and co-invests in parallel with the UV2 fund in entrepreneurial projects based in the regional territory. The focuses are the field of software and digital technologies in the early stage, with the ambition of digitizing industrial sectors.
Vertis Venture 4 Scaleup Lazio
With an endowment of 8.1 million euros, the fund was launched in 2019 and co-invests with the Vertis Venture 2 Scaleup fund in Lazio entrepreneurial projects linked to industrial and digital technologies. The subject supports the growth of entities that are based or aim to establish themselves in Lazio. The investment period ended in June 2022. He has in his portfolio Fitprime And Radical Storage.
