In the first six months of 2024 Italy has recorded an increase in the number of financing operations in startups (87, compared to 84 achieved a year ago) but the total value of investments drops dramatically. If from an overall point of view, the collection in our country totaled a figure of just under 500 million euros, this value was strongly influenced by two large private equity operations targeting two “former startups” (Bending Spoons And Medical Micronstruments) now full-fledged international scaleups. Therefore, with less than 300 million euros, investments in innovative companies in our country mark a decline of 47.6%, compared to 12 months ago, when the total financed amounted to approximately 486 million euros. These are the main findings that emerge from report created by StartupItalia and presented this morning in Rome during the event SIOS24 Summer: Multiple Intelligenceswhich brought together the world of business, universities, institutions and associations to take a six-monthly review of investments in Italy, the prospects of the sector and the main emerging trends.
“Despite the overall decline, the Italian ecosystem is giving clear signs of positive transformation which should not be underestimated,” he specifies Simone Pepino, CEO of Startupitalia. “Firstly, in 2024 the collections pre-seed And seeds have taken over compared to the Series B and Series C rounds (although not yet in sufficient quantities) and, at the same time, the number of investors (venture capital and business angels) who have expertise and knowledge in the startup field has increased”.
Investments in innovative start-ups in Italy
Subtracting the aforementioned Bending Spoons and Medical Microinstruments operations from the overall value, the calculation of investments as of 15 June 2024 it stops at altitude 254,567,500 euros. A number that represents a drastic drop (-47.6%), compared to last year when the total financed was approximately 486 million euros. Equity crowdfunding also decreased, with 43 campaigns successfully closed and a total collection of 24,463,682 million (-15% compared to June 2023).
I am eight rounds over 10 million euros which contributed overall to approximately 112.5 million in investments in the first 6 months of the year.
Transactions above 10 million euros
Right at the beginning of 2024, Contents.com (platform that facilitates the production of multilingual and multi-format digital content) has announced a round of 16.5 million euros; 16 million were raised by Aidexa Bank (fintech specialized in access to credit for micro and small businesses), 15 million from Daze (charging solutions for electric cars) and 14 million from Future (artificial intelligence models that personalize study processes and optimize student learning trajectories) for their “Series A”.
From Resalis (development of drugs capable of inhibiting micro-RNA for the treatment of metabolic diseases), Squim (transformation of by-products and low-value residues from agro-industry into functional products), Tes Pharma (innovative drugs for the treatment of metabolic and oncological diseases) the other three rounds all worth 10 million euros. Last but not least, the 21 million euro capital increase operation which led to the acquisition of Everli (marketplace that facilitates the choice of the supermarket in which to purchase your favorite products) by Palella Holdings.
Investments in Italy by sector, region and type
Analyzing in more detail the 87 operations closed in 2024, we note that approximately 7.8% of the rounds were allocated to startups operating in the biotech sectortogether with IT solutions aimed at a B2B market. 6.7% instead it concerns investments in the world of software, most of which are powered by artificial intelligence algorithms. Several rounds also in the food sector manufacturing and fabrication which weigh on almost the 6% of the total. On equal merit we then have the financing that was made in theagritech, in Human resources – especially for solutions that facilitate recruiting activities – and in space tech and in technologies applied to sportapproximately 5.6%.
On the regional distribution front, it still is Lombardy to conquer approximately half of the investments (48.27%), but the leap forward of the Lazio which takes second place nationally with 14.9% of funding.
As regards the most frequent types of rounds this year we note that approximately 41.3% of the financing concerned operations from 1 to 5 million euros, 33.3% were instead dedicated to the seed phase (between 500 thousand and 1 million euros), while the pre- seed had an impact of approximately 14.9%. There were 4 (4.75%) Series B rounds (from 5 to 10 million) and Series C rounds, exceeding 10 million.
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