According to the latest figures, Italy’s tech sector raised $768 million in the first half of 2025, blowing past figures for previous years. Healthtech alone pulled in $126m, fintech $91.6m, energy tech $78.9m, and enterprise software funding has nearly doubled since 2021 (figures from Vento VC).
In theory, Italy is literally riding a wave. So is it finally having its ‘Tech Renaissance’?
Startups seem to be on a roll. For instance, Milan-based AI security firm Aindo, recently closed a $20 million Series A, and Bologna-based distributed cloud storage provider Cubbit won EU backing.
The European Commission forecasted Italy’s GDP would grow by 0.9% in 2026, while inflation is expected to hold steady under 2%, which could establish a stable environment for investment.
And Italy is the EU’s second-largest manufacturing base, with dense industry, resilient supply chains, and deep engineering talent. For instance, STMicroelectronics recently launched a new €5 billion fab in Catania.
Now, the camera is cutting to Turin, the birthplace of Fiat, which annually hosts Italian Tech Week. Last year it drew over 15,000 attendees, headlined by Jeff Bezos and the EU head Ursula von der Leyen.
The event was always primarily organised by Vento, founded by Fiat scion John Elkann, one of Italy’s leading early-stage funds. But now it’s rebranding as ‘Wave, by Vento’ making the provenance more explicit.
But can the event maintain its independence, just as Italy generates some tech momentum?
In this week’s Pathfounders podcast, Vento CEO Diyala D'Aveni told me: “Of course, we are still kind of behind compared to other European ecosystems, but we are on the right trajectory. And the numbers… are a validation of that. That's why we started to invest in this ecosystem in the first place a few years ago, because we were expecting this growth. And now for the first time, we see some new companies raising Series A, Series B, and doing well in this ecosystem.”
She said the name change to Wave reflects the increasingly international nature of the event: “One thing that I think wasn't clear is that it was always us organizing the event. [But] we always have other VCs on stage because our objective with the event is to bring the best people to the conversation. So we don't care if it's us or if it's someone else.”
The aim is “always to have the best founders and the best audience. And that's what we are working on at the moment and do,” she said.
With the name change, they are building “something that goes beyond Italy and possibly beyond Europe. So we need a name that can represent that idea and that intention.”
She added that although Italian founders are spread internationally, increasingly many are returning: “For instance, 50% of our companies are Italians outside of Italy. So for sure we have a brain drain problem. But what is good is that even those Italians that are not in Italy anymore are supporting the ecosystem, [they] are coming back to help other founders when they are growing. They are opening new legal entities in the country, hiring people, creating new jobs,” said D'Aveni.
How has the government of Georgia Meloni affected the ecoystsem: “The government is more aware of the importance of this ecosystem. For sure, there are things that we could do better, but I think we are going in the right direction. And also on the European level, I think there are very good signals. As you know, last year also the president of the European Commission was on stag,e and she said very important things. Of course now we need to see if there will be actions, but for sure we are on a good trajectory also on that side, I think.”
She added that the 28th Regime initiative promoted by EU Inc “would be very important because, you know, opening a company in Italy is still kind of cumbersome. But more than that, when they want to expand to a new country in Europe, there's a lot of things they have to do. And I think this is one of the main drawbacks of building a company in Europe. Every country is kind of a different world. So we need to have better legislation and a better way to operate throughout Europe and not only in your initial market.”
You can watch or listen to the full interview below: