Apple and Steve Jobs' garage. Since then, the image of the start-up created in the basement of the house has entered the collective imagination with force. In some cases, like Apple, the experience has been successful, especially in and around Silicon Valley. However, the garage is not the best recipe. To be more likely to be successful, startups need an ecosystem in which as many people as possible participate, from universities to investors. "Creating an ecosystem increases the success rate of start-ups, allows them to grow, create a system and create work, contacts and opportunities multiply", says Luigi Capello who with the holding company LVenture Group was the first has brought together in an integrated way a venture capital, a start-up accelerator (Luiss Enlabs, in partnership with the Luiss University), and a real ecosystem of relationships and contacts. From universities, in addition to Luiss, there are for example La Sapienza and the Polytechnic of Turin, to investors and large corporations, passing through the support of a network of advisors and partners. Instead of the garage, there are 2000 square meters at Rome's Termini Station, where all the start-ups in which LVenture has invested work. And not only. LVenture also hosts realities with which it does not have a real business relationship but which in some way could benefit from remaining for some time immersed in the "ecosystem": or because they still need to be monitored before a possible investment, for example, or because they are not yet able to express a complete team (the formula pursued is that all the main human resources needed must be internal to the start-up team to minimize start-up costs). The idea was born in 2010 during a trip to San Francisco where Capello, co-founder of the main Business Angel association in 2007 Italian Angels for Growth and a past in private equity and investment banking, realized that the start-ups there up were all accelerated and that this could have been the way to start up in Italy too. From overseas to Rome's Termini station it's not exactly a short step but it proved to be an interesting choice in Italy: in the capital there is less competition and more opportunities for talent thanks to the largest university population in Europe; at the same time the station offers an inexhaustible crossroads of contacts.
A formula to create synergies of creativity, of ideas but also of relationships and opportunities. Hence the success of the start up Atoma - a touch of magic, which has developed an App included in Samsung's new wristwatch-mobile phone, has translated into a showcase and opportunities for the other start-ups that share the station at Termini Station: for Samsung today the train to the Italian Silicon valley passes by Termini station. “They came to Italy to buy a technology and they also visited all the other start-ups of the accelerator”, Capello said on the sidelines of the Small cap conference organized by Borsa Italiana. And the logic concerns most of the other large corporations, potential customers of start-ups, who go to a few large centers in search of new ideas and businesses. This is why LVenture aims to further increase the number of start-ups accepted at Termini and for this reason it is looking for further spaces (in the last selection out of 80 already pre-selected groups only six were taken, more space will allow to expand the number of entries ).
In other words, many small start-ups but with the network of a multinational giant. “Every small town here wants to open something – Capello pointed out – But start-ups are actually made in few places in the world. In the digital world, corporations go to Berlin, for example. In Germany, that's where start-ups are born. Seattle was born because Boeing was behind it. In Italy, however, there can be a maximum of 1-2 start-up centres”. On the other hand, there are also other differences with respect to other countries which should be considered when speaking of support for growth and employment. Worldwide, approximately 40% of the resources for this sector come from public sources, in Ireland the government agency Enterprise Ireland, thanks to European funds, has an office in every country and attracts with tax benefits and financing. “We don't ask the public for money – says Capello – but the procurement, i.e. the use of start-ups for 5%, for example, of the purchases of supplies from public administrations”.
On the other hand, today the world of start-ups is in full swing and is beginning to represent the backbone of opportunities around which young people (but not only) are reorganizing their energies and intelligence to react to the crisis. At the same time, technology has radically changed the scenario: in the digital world in 2000, 5 million dollars were needed to set up a start-up, today around 5 euros. Today the construction of the product is cheaper and the internet has made it faster to acquire customers in all parts of the world.
At the same time, the internet is forcing a change in business models, overturning the old business models and opening up ample scope for conquest. LVenture, which looks at fast growing Italian companies in the digital world, intervenes in the first phase of life of start-ups, called the valley of death, through two types of interventions: micro seed financing, i.e. limited investments ( around 60 thousand euros) in start-ups entering the acceleration programme; seed financing, i.e. investments (about 200 euros) in start-ups that are in a more advanced stage, chosen above all from among those that have participated in the accelerator. As a counterparty to the investment, LVenture acquires a minority stake in the start-up. The goal is to make start-ups grow so that they can find more important investors, such as business angels or venture capital who allocate larger investments, and then reach private equity and the stock market.
The first exits (ie the exit by the venture capital from the investment which by definition is temporary) are expected in 2-3 years, ie now 4-5 years from the start of the birth of the project. “We have continuous talks with all the venture capitals in the world – says Capello – they are realizing that quality is high in Italy. It's not just about new technologies but also about new business models on existing businesses. When venture capital calls us from New York they ask us for start-ups in the food, design and fashion sectors”. To date, LVenture, which is listed on the MTA Stock Exchange and has almost 3 shareholders) has raised 5 million euros with the next goal of reaching 10 million in fundraising and has invested 1,8 million in start-ups (4 million with other investors) in 18 holdings, creating more than 150 jobs. The expected internal rate of return (Irr) target is 30%. Currently, 80% of start-ups are already fundraising, i.e. they raise the money themselves to move forward, which makes them attractive to other investors. Certainly today there are already those who fear a start-up bubble. But Capello reassured: “I don't see it yet – he said – in Italy there is no price bubble, there are many but the numbers are still small. We are still few compared to other countries”.
