In Q2 2023, €273 million was invested in startups and innovative SMEs across 70 investment rounds, including 13 Series A rounds and 2 Series B rounds. The number of exits saw an increase, reaching 19. Lifestyle was the sector with the most rounds, while Life Sciences attracted the most funds. The biotech startup AAvantgarde Bio closed the highest round of the quarter, raising €61 million. The absence of mega-rounds is the primary reason for the limited capital raised for the third consecutive quarter. However, excluding mega-rounds from the analysis, Q2-23 aligns with the average of the past two years (€241 million).
During the event, the first edition of the VC Index was also presented, created by Growth Capital in collaboration with Italian Tech Alliance. The index, calculated on a scale from 1 to 10, is updated semi-annually and provides an indication of the development stage of the VC ecosystem in Italy, along with the sentiment of its stakeholders. The index is built considering both quantitative inputs from market data analysis and qualitative inputs from VC operators (startups and investors) based on the sentiment regarding the current and future situation.
“In the first half of 2023, as we had predicted, Italy experienced the impact of the general macroeconomic uncertainty less significantly than Europe. The overall results for this year will depend on the presence of mega-rounds and investors’ willingness to deploy the high levels of dry powder currently available. Furthermore, the consolidation trend in Venture Capital in Italy continues, and we expect a historic record in M&A operations for 2023,” commented Fabio Mondini de Focatiis, Founding Partner, Growth Capital.
Despite a slight decrease in the number of rounds (70 compared to 89 in Q1-23), Q2-23 saw €273 million raised, marking a 34% increase compared to €204 million in Q1-23. For the entire first half of 2023, there were 159 rounds recorded, raising a total of €477 million, in line with the average of the last 5 years. As in Q1-23, no mega-rounds were recorded, which had been a major driver of higher capital raises in the past five years (Q2-22 and Q3-22), contributing to around 40-50% of the total.
