The year 2022 closes on a positive note for the Italian startup ecosystem with a share of equity investments by Italian hi-tech startups of 2.1 billion. This is three times more than the investments reached in 2019, which instead amounted to only 649 million.

"An important boost that promises to last over time," comments Andrea Rangone, scientific head of the Hi-tech Startup Observatory. "At a time when, due to inflation and geopolitical instability, the country is seeing its growth estimates fall, startups are marking a trend in complete contrast."

Making a comparison between formal investors (VCs, Independent Funds and GVC Funds) and informal investors (Business Angel, crowdfunding), it is the former who confirm their position as the main players in the ecosystem, registering a growth of +44 percent compared to 2021. Of these, however, it is mainly the international funding component that significantly drives growth, doubling its share from 435 million in 2021 to 1,029 million in 2022, thus making up about half of the entire ecosystem. In contrast, funding from informal actors, on the other hand, declined by 12 percent, from 449 million to 400 million invested.

This continued growth, shows how much the Italian ecosystem is striving to catch up with other European countries, although a very important gap still remains.

According to the Startup Observatory, the relative size of the formal Italian ecosystem remains about one-sixth the size of the French ecosystem, one-quarter the size of the German ecosystem, and with comparable size to the Spanish ecosystem.