Over the last 15 years or so, as European venture capital shifted into a higher gear, one way to help a nation’s ecosystem flourish was to invest in founders from that that country, regardless of where they were based. This would help re-patriate the entrepreneurial mindset back home. In Europe, the approach was pioneered in part by Paris-based Kima Ventures. Now, a new venture firm hopes to replicate that idea from Italy.
Vento, one of Italy’s most active private early-stage VCs, is launching its second fund, hard-capped at €75 million, specifically to back Italian startup founders at home and abroad.
The sector-agnostic fund originated from the organizers of Italian Tech Week, held annually in Turin, which has hosted the likes of Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk, among others.
The event was originally launched by Fiat family scion John Elkann, chairman of Vento, but also chairman of Stellantis (the parent company of Fiat) and Exor (the holding company of the Agnelli family, which controls Fiat and other assets).
Understandably for someone of his status, Elkann has an extensive network both in Europe and Silicon Valley, which he helps bring to ITW. So it’s perhaps no coincidence that Vento’s Investment Committee includes such tech industry veterans as Diego Piacentini, Mike Volpi (formerly of Index Ventures), and Jean de La Rochebrochard. Ironically, Rochebrochard recently joined the very same Kima Ventures that Vento hopes to emulate, after being controversially removed from Newwave, a French venture outfit, last year.
To date, Vento has already invested in 100 startups including Bee, JetHR and Qomodo. Fund II plans to invest in 375 investments over five years, said the company.
Diyala D’Aveni, CEO of Vento, told TechCrunch over a call that, “Italy is quite behind compared to other European countries, but we think the trajectory is the same as the others. So that’s why we’re doing this. Italian Tech Week is a way for us to bring people from outside of Italy, on the one side, to push incredible investors to meet Italian founders and see the potential of the Italian ecosystem, and inspire the talent in Italy to build their own companies. We think the fact that there are not many success stories in Italy is kind of preventing the ecosystem to grow.”
Added D’Aveni, “There’s no lack of capital. It’s a lack of companies, but we just need some success stories, and then the whole flywheel will kick off, and we will see what we saw in France.”
Italian Tech Week feeds usefully into this strategy, allowing Vento to evaluate over 3,500 startups that apply to appear at the event, maintaining a selective 2.5% conversion rate with a standardized €150,000 ticket size, and with some follow-on investments being made.
But what was the problem with previous Italian tech founders that Elkann felt this fund would solve?
“When we launched Vento’s first fund in 2022, we recognized that Italy’s technological and entrepreneurial potential was significantly underserved,” he told TechCrunch.
“Italian founders have always demonstrated exceptional… entrepreneurial spirit, but the ecosystem was not there. Vento was created to address this gap by providing not just capital, but a comprehensive platform that combines direct investment, venture building, and network development through Italian Tech Week.”
However, Italian company law is often considered less favorable to startup founders compared to UK or US company vehicles. Does he expect the startups that Vento funds to be Italy-domiciled or will it be agnostic?
“Our primary commitment is to identify exceptional Italian founders and support them in their global entrepreneurial journey,” he said. “Italy is making significant strides to become increasingly competitive in the international technology landscape, and we are confident that soon these regulatory differences between countries will become less and less relevant.”
To be fair, Italy’s tech scene is improving. According to Dealroom data, venture capital investment in Italian startups totaled $5.72 billion across the last five years (2020 to 2024), a more than threefold increase from the previous five years, when it hit only $1.7 billion.
D’Aveni added that there were already plans to reach out internationally: “We already have a network of founders outside of Italy who are sending us deals, as well as micro-communities of Italians in New York, London, Berlin and Paris, among others.”
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