In the second quarter of 2023, €273 million was invested in startups across 70 investment rounds, including 13 Series A and 2 Series B rounds. There is a notable increase in exits, reaching a total of 19. The Lifestyle sector recorded the highest number of rounds, with Life Sciences attracting the most funds. Among them, the biotech startup AAvantgarde Bio closed the quarter with the highest funding amount (€61M). The absence of mega rounds remains the primary reason for limited fundraising for the third consecutive quarter: excluding mega rounds from the analysis, Q2-23 aligns with the average of the previous two years (€241M).

Despite a slight decrease in the number of rounds (70 compared to 89 in Q1-23), Italy saw fundraising reach €273 million in Q2-23, a 34% increase from the €204 million in Q1-23. For the entire first half of 2023, there were 159 recorded rounds, accumulating a total of €477 million, aligning with the average of the last 5 years. Similar to Q1-23, no mega rounds were recorded, which had been decisive in quarters with higher fundraising in the past 5 years (Q2-22 and Q3-22), accounting for approximately 40-50%.

In Q2-23, Pre-seed and Seed rounds remained the most frequent type (55 rounds, representing over 78% of the total). Series A rounds, however, proved to be the most significant in terms of amount (59%), even though more than a third of the total investment is attributable to AAvantgarde Bio’s Series A round alone. Compared to Q1-23, there is an increase in fundraising at the Pre-seed level (+56%), Series A (+93%), and especially Series B (+131%), but a reduction at the Seed level (-45%).

Looking at individual sectors, Lifestyle had the highest number of announced deals in the second quarter (12), followed by Smart City (10). With €71 million, Life Sciences is the sector with the highest fundraising (26% of the total), followed by Fintech (€61 million) and Smart City (€50 million).

The analysis of the top 5 deals of the quarter highlights the cautious approach of Venture Capital operators, as evidenced by the absence of mega rounds (as noted in the two previous quarters). In the first position, we find AAvantgarde Bio (Series A, €61 million), followed by Energy Dome (Series B, €40 million), One Trading (Series A, €30 million), Banca Aidexa (Series A, €20 million), and, in the fifth position, an unannounced Series B round of €15 million. Q2-23 recorded 19 exits, an increase from the 11 in the first quarter. All liquidity events materialized through M&A transactions.

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