The first half of 2025 closes for the Italian venture capital with a balance sheet showing mixed signals. Overall operations are increased by 21%, going up to 153 from 129 deals of the same period in 2024, but theamount invested fell by 9%, going from 488 to 443 million euros for Italian startups alone, and collapsing at 523 million in total including foreign companies founded by Italians (there were 758 million a year ago).
The trend is certified by half-yearly report of the Venture Capital Monitor – VeM, the observatory curated by Liuc University with Aifi, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, KPMG, CDP Venture Capital and Iban.Italy, the curators explain, still lags behind compared to the main European competitors. What weighs most is theabsence of large rounds, which in more mature markets such as Germany or France represent a crucial lever for growth.
Italy without national champions
“In our ecosystem the conditions to foster the birth of true national champions are still lacking“, observes Anna Gervasoni, rector of LIUC and general director of AIFI. "Mega deals are still too few, and this limits the system's ability to scale. We need to work on the earlier stages to build a group of startups capable of attracting larger amounts of capital in the future."
“Now the priority is clarify the modalities with which the pension funds will be able to invest in venture capital", says Gervasoni. A regulatory step that, if well-calibrated, could inject new life into the Italian market, still too dependent on a few sources of capital and short-term thinking.
The John Fusaro, project manager at VeM, emphasizes that "in a market like the Italian one, which is not yet mature, the presence or absence of large-scale transactions has a decisive impact." The decline in large-scale deals is reflected in the decline in the contribution of foreign funds, which fell to 27% of total investments, compared to 47% in 2024.
More rounds, but smaller tickets
The positive fact is theincrease in the number of operations, which went from 129 to 153, with 107 new investments (they were 97 in 2024). overall rounds There were 142, up from 117 the previous year. However, the average amount per deal decreased, also due to investors' caution. As explained Luca Pagetti, head of Startup Growth Financing at Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, “the seed and pre-seed phase remains particularly penalized, while capital is concentrated in already structured entities”.
La contraction It is even more pronounced for foreign startups founded by Italians, in which case the funding decreases from €270 million to just €80 million, spread across 11 rounds. Business angels, meanwhile, have invested €22,5 million, in line with last year. The early-stage funding cycle as a whole has raised €465 million across 156 rounds (€511 million out of 133 in 2024).
Technology and AI drive investments
At the sectoral level, theIct continues to dominate the Italian venture capital scene, representing 39% of the transactions. Within this, 73% of the investments concerned startup enterprise, the remaining 27% digital services to consumers. Strong growth also inartificial intelligence, especially in vertical areas such as defense and space.
“AI is driving global investments, and Europe is moving from a technology taker role to a technology maker role,” he observes. Alessandro Soprano, partner of KPMG. They follow thehealthcare (14%) ei financial services (9%), both growing compared to 2024. Also strongly expanding is the technology transfer, which in the first six months of 2025 attracted 137 million from 33 operations.
Lombardy leads the way, but new innovation hubs are needed.
La Lombardy confirms its position as the epicenter of Italian venture capital., with 48% of funded startups located in the region, a sharp increase compared to the 34% recorded in the first half of 2024. Lazio and Emilia-Romagna follow at a great distance, each with a share of 8%.
This data, on the one hand, testifies to the strength of the Lombard ecosystem, on the other highlights a marked territorial imbalance in the distribution of investmentsThis concentration risks hindering the country's overall growth. To strengthen the competitiveness of Italian innovation, it is crucial to promote the development of new regional hubs capable of attracting capital, nurturing local talent, and creating innovative supply chains spread across the country.
