Key Takeaways
- • Eighteen public and quasi-public LPs active in Italian venture back 25 Italian venture firms with combined assets of around €5bn, according to a mapping built on Scout's Public LP Database (Italian edition, with Francesca Baillieu).
- • CDP Venture Capital is present in 24 of the 25 firms, and 76% of the firms are backed by two or more public LPs, meaning managers typically assemble coalitions of public institutions rather than single anchor investors.
- • Only 29% of firms backed by Italian public LPs are based abroad, compared with 48% in Germany and 75% in Denmark, reflecting geographic conditions attached to public capital.
- • Only 8% of Italy's publicly backed firms focus on late stage, versus 22% in Germany and 15% in Denmark, leaving the Series B stage largely financed from abroad.
- • Italian venture investment was worth about 0.07% of GDP in 2025 per EY, against 0.15% in Germany and 0.22% in France.
Summary
An analysis published by Startupbusiness.it on 30 October 2026 argues that institutional money in Italian venture capital carries geographic conditions that keep capital in the country but limit its growth. The analysis draws on the Italian edition of Scout's Public LP Database, which mapped 18 public and quasi-public LPs. These include state-linked institutions such as CDP Venture Capital, the European Investment Fund, and regional finance companies Finlombarda and Lazio Innova, as well as the Casse di previdenza, Italy's professional pension funds, which perform a public function. Together they back 25 Italian venture firms with combined assets of around €5bn; 60% specialise in early stage and only 8% in late stage.
Each institution sets its own geographic condition. CDP's domestic funds-of-funds are dedicated to Italian managers, with most money coming from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, which can only invest in funds whose portfolio companies have an operating base in Italy. CDP's international fund-of-funds, around €307m, backs foreign managers that invest in Italy and open a local presence, cited through Partech's Milan office opened in 2023. Lombardy's programmes use a parallel vehicle, with the ring-fenced share sometimes small; in Energy Dome's €32.5m round the regional contribution was €1.25m, about 4%. The Casse receive a tax exemption tied to a rising venture allocation under the 2023 annual competition law, rising from 3% in 2025 to 5% in 2026 and 10% from 2027, with qualifying funds required to invest at least 70% in Italian companies.
The article argues that while each rule is logical on its own, their combined effect leaves a system that is safe for individual LPs but structurally small. According to EY, cited in the article, Italian venture investment equalled about 0.07% of GDP in 2025. The main limit appears at Series B: when Italian start-ups seek €30m or €50m, the domestic system thins and the lead investor is usually foreign. According to the Venture Capital Monitor, Italian-headquartered start-ups raised just over €1.6bn from institutional investors in 2025, while Italian-founded companies based abroad raised almost €600m. Citing FABI's analysis of Bank of Italy data, the article notes Italian households hold around €6.5 trillion in financial assets, and says the constraint is channels rather than capital. The ECB is cited as finding government entities account for about a third of LPs in EU venture funds, against 4% in the United States. The author warns that new pension money, routed through CDP's "Previdentia" compartment, risks repeating the single-intermediary pattern.
Each institution sets its own geographic condition. CDP's domestic funds-of-funds are dedicated to Italian managers, with most money coming from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, which can only invest in funds whose portfolio companies have an operating base in Italy. CDP's international fund-of-funds, around €307m, backs foreign managers that invest in Italy and open a local presence, cited through Partech's Milan office opened in 2023. Lombardy's programmes use a parallel vehicle, with the ring-fenced share sometimes small; in Energy Dome's €32.5m round the regional contribution was €1.25m, about 4%. The Casse receive a tax exemption tied to a rising venture allocation under the 2023 annual competition law, rising from 3% in 2025 to 5% in 2026 and 10% from 2027, with qualifying funds required to invest at least 70% in Italian companies.
The article argues that while each rule is logical on its own, their combined effect leaves a system that is safe for individual LPs but structurally small. According to EY, cited in the article, Italian venture investment equalled about 0.07% of GDP in 2025. The main limit appears at Series B: when Italian start-ups seek €30m or €50m, the domestic system thins and the lead investor is usually foreign. According to the Venture Capital Monitor, Italian-headquartered start-ups raised just over €1.6bn from institutional investors in 2025, while Italian-founded companies based abroad raised almost €600m. Citing FABI's analysis of Bank of Italy data, the article notes Italian households hold around €6.5 trillion in financial assets, and says the constraint is channels rather than capital. The ECB is cited as finding government entities account for about a third of LPs in EU venture funds, against 4% in the United States. The author warns that new pension money, routed through CDP's "Previdentia" compartment, risks repeating the single-intermediary pattern.
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