The Italian begin -up ecosystem is dealing with a persistent financing hole, particularly in its early levels, investments per head of capital per capita, remaining considerably from different main European nations. In 2023, the Italian startups supplied just one.1 billion euros in threat financing, in contrast with 10.2 billion euros in Germany. This distinction limits the variety of startups that advance to subsequent financing rounds, constraining their worldwide progress and the overall progress of the ecosystem.
P101 SGR actively addresses this hole by enhancing the decision of Italy for each inner and international buyers, whereas supporting the worldwide enlargement of Italian startups. By means of the substantial capital in an early stage and strategic assist, P101 permits promising firms to develop and acquire worldwide recognition, encouraging a extra dynamic technological atmosphere.
P101 SGR has now closed an funding fund of 250 million euros – a major stage for each the corporate and the Italian technological ecosystem. The Fund, Programma 103, reached the ultimate closure in 2024, following an preliminary closure of EUR 150 million in December 2022. This represents the most important P101 fund up to now and one of many largest within the historical past of Italy’s threat capital.
This closure indicators a strong impulse within the threat and threat know-how stage in Italy, which has just lately produced notable successes, reminiscent of bending the spoons and medical microinteracts. Andrea Di Camillo, the founder and chief of the P101, sees the renewed confidence of the present buyers and the rising curiosity from the brand new ones as a vote of confidence in Italian innovation. “Our ambition shouldn’t be solely to finance startups, however to mannequin Italy’s Financial DNA for digital period,” mentioned di Camillo.
P101: A decade of Italian VC innovation
Based in 2013 by Andrea Di Camillo and primarily based in Milan, the P101 SGR appeared as one of the essential threat capital firms in Italy. The corporate invests in digital and technology-oriented firms in Europe, with a important emphasis on the startups within the early stage.
The corporate adopts a sensible method, functioning as an inner counselor, whereas providing strategic route, expertise recruitment and operational assist for a interval of 5 to 10 years. In 2024, the inner recruiters of P101 efficiently positioned 45 C-Suitor administrators within the portfolio firms, which led to a 40% low cost on employment phrases.
P101 often invests in rounds of Collection A and B, with investments between 1 million and over 10 million euros. Whereas taking minority stakes, the corporate presents inner consultancy for worldwide enlargement, value methods and ESG compliance. The fund contains each returning and new companions, together with notable institutional buyers, reminiscent of European Funding Fund, Azimut, CDP Enterprise Capital, Banco BPM, UniCredit, Inarcassa and the IP Group pension fund, in addition to the outstanding Italian household places of work. The participation of CDP Enterprise Capital is especially important, as a result of it channels the funds within the nationwide restoration and resilience plan in Italy (PNRR) in digital innovation.
Programma 103, the newest and largest P101 fund, commits 250 million euros primarily for early startups. The fund targets Fintech, Prophech, Edutech and Cybersecurity, emphasizing sustainability and digital transformation. For instance, Cortilia supported by P101, a sturdy meals supply service, obtained a 30% discount in meals waste by managing AI shares, demonstrating a powerful dedication to ESG.
Whereas specializing in Italy and Spain, Programma 103 additionally invests on different European markets to assist begin ups to develop and entice international capital. The fund allocates 30% of its capital for Spain and different European markets, reflecting the cross-border technique of P101 and goals to judge the Italian startup in opposition to European colleagues.
Investments P101, portfolio firms and profitable outputs
P101 has invested in over 50 technological firms and manages over 500 million euros on 5 funds. Its key portfolio firms embrace multiply labs, Strava, Citynews, Cortilia, MusixMatch and Tannico.
The corporate has accomplished over 100 financing rounds and has obtained 15 outputs, the portfolio firms producing substantial revenue and worldwide recognition. Notable successes embrace Musixmatch’s 500 million dollars buy by TPG in 2023 and P101 in Cyberguru, which led to a 22% discount in fraud incidents amongst Italian central banks.
The operational mannequin of the P101 extends past financing: it presents shared gadgets to optimize cloud prices, presents ESG instruments set in collaboration with Politecnico DI Milano and makes use of a double fund construction that enables retail buyers to take part by way of the Azimut Platform. This method broadens the investor base in Italy, whereas including capital and experience to the ecosystem.
By 2030, P101 expects this system 103 to create over three,000 excessive -qualified jobs, emphasizing gender variety in technological roles and goals to generate 5 billion euros in cumulative revenues, to double the achievements of earlier funds. The fund additionally intends to draw 1.5 billion euros in financing from world buyers.