Italian Founders Fund
Venture capitalItaly · Pre-Seed–Series A · 11 people tracked
Investment thesis
Italian Founders Fund backs early-stage companies with Italian DNA: startups born in Italy, expanding into the country, or founded by Italians globally. Built by former founders who returned to Italy to create the VC they wished they had, the firm leverages a network of top Italian builders and entrepreneurs. It leads or co-leads early rounds, writing initial checks of EUR250k to EUR3m from Pre-Seed to Series A, and helps portfolio companies unlock global capital when scaling. The firm emphasizes speed, transparency, founder-friendly terms, and active support from its operating team and founder community, seeking ambitious founders with a global mindset.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 11 people
from the firm's website & curated & public directories
What they invest in
from 26 of 28 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×16Enterprise Software ×13SaaS ×12Data & Infrastructure ×4Fintech ×4HR Tech ×4Energy ×3Healthtech ×3
HQs:Italy×8European Union×3United States×2Iceland×1
Investments · 28 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 22024 · 13 dated
Cassandra is a self-service marketing measurement platform that combines marketing mix modeling (using open-source foundations like Project Robyn and Google Meridian) with geo-lift incrementality experiments to help marketing teams measure advertising impact without consultants or technical expertise.
AdTechMarketing TechSaaS
Gabriele Franco(Co-founder)
Co-investorsPitchdrive
Cato is a platform that helps companies identify and bid on public procurement opportunities (gare d'appalto) more efficiently.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise Software
Co-investorsHeartfelt Capital
CommerceClarity is an AI agent platform for retail catalog operations that automates product data enrichment, translation, field extraction, and channel-ready formatting on top of a retailer's existing PIM, ERP, and DAM.
AI & Machine LearningE-commerceRetail Tech
Co-investorsEntourage Ventures
Complaion provides compliance and certification services centered on ISO standards (including 9001, 27001, 42001, 14001, 45001, 50001) with lead auditors and product tools.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareSaaSMilano, IT
Edoardo Tarricone(CEO, Lead Auditor)Marco Cortinovis(COO, Lead Auditor)Alessandro Vaccarino(CTO, Lead Auditor)
Co-investorsEnzo VenturesItalian Angels for GrowthMoonstone Venture Capital
Compri builds AI agents that integrate with ERPs and data sources to automate procurement tasks such as sourcing, negotiation, and supplier management.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSMilan, EU
Co-investorsDFF Ventures
Fleequid operates a European online marketplace for buying and selling used buses and coaches, offering fixed-price sales and auctions with independent vehicle inspections, secure payments, and cross-border delivery logistics.
Logistics & Supply ChainMarketplaces
Co-investorsDFF Ventures
Glaut is an AI-powered market research platform that runs AI-moderated voice interviews and performs automatic thematic coding, entity recognition, and interpretative analysis of open-ended responses, delivering dashboards, CSV/SPSS exports, and executive reports.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSEurope, EU
Co-investorsBrainstorm Ventures
Invertix is an AI-powered renewable energy operating system that uses autonomous agents to audit telemetry data, automate operations and maintenance, and ensure financial compliance for solar, wind, and storage portfolios across Europe.
AI & Machine LearningEnergySaaSViterbo, IT
Kaan Durmaz(CTO)
Jet HR is an Italian platform for hiring, managing, and paying employees in Italy, and it offers a free database of Italian venture capital firms, angel investors, incubators, and accelerators for startup founders raising capital.
FintechHR TechSaaSMilan, IT
Francesco Scalambrino(Founder)inHR Tech SaaS Francesco Scalambrino(Founder)Marco Ogliengo(Founder & CEO)in
Co-investorsClub degli InvestitoriFiDi VenturesLVenture GroupMoonfire VenturesPICUS CAPITALProximity Capital+4 more
Klearly provides an integrated payment solution for the Horeca (hotel, restaurant, and café) industry, connecting payment infrastructure with businesses' existing POS systems.
FintechFoodTechSaaS
Sam Koekoek(Founder)in
Co-investorsAcurio VenturesAntlerPayPal VenturesShapers
Klearly is a predictive analytics platform that helps B2B revenue teams—including sales, marketing, and customer success—interpret their data to forecast future opportunities and identify patterns that drive revenue growth.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSales Tech
Alex Krawchick(Co-founder)Eric Pfahl(Co-founder)Matt Webbink(Co-founder)
Co-investorsStudio VC
mama health operates an AI-driven platform that collects patient experiences from people with chronic conditions such as endometriosis and turns them into clinical insights for doctors and researchers.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech
Co-investorsBrandenburg KapitalSenovo
Manufact provides a platform and open-source SDK for developers to build, test, and deploy MCP (Model Context Protocol) applications and servers for AI agents and chat interfaces like ChatGPT and Claude.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Pietro Zullo(Founder)inLuigi Pederzani(Founder)in
Co-investorsY CombinatorPeak XV Partners
Pillar builds software combining operations, administration, and embedded financial services for construction companies, including financing and AI-driven tools.
AI & Machine LearningConstruction TechEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS
GabrielPaoloLorenzo
Co-investorsEmblemItalian Angels for Growth
Platonic records desktop and browser activity to use AI for reconstructing workflows, process maps, and automation opportunities for enterprise operations teams.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Sava develops a wearable biosensor that continuously monitors multiple biomarkers (glucose, lactate, ketones, sodium, histamine, urea, alcohol, cortisol) in real-time, delivering health data to a mobile app for preventative health monitoring and chronic disease management.
HardwareHealthtechMedical Devices
Renato Circi(Founder)inRafaël Michali(Founder)in
Co-investorsBalderton CapitalExceptional VenturesNorrsken VC
Seltz provides web knowledge infrastructure for large language models and autonomous AI agents, offering continuously updated, high-quality data with precise retrieval capabilities designed for machine reasoning.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Co-investorsUnited Ventures2100 VenturesMango CapitalSpeedinvest
Sona is a workforce management platform that uses AI to help large organizations optimize labor efficiency, staffing decisions, and HR operations across multiple locations.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHR Tech
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesGradient VenturesNorthzoneAntler
Sona is an AI workforce management platform that optimizes labor scheduling and cost reduction for large frontline organizations across hospitality, retail, and social care.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHR Tech
SteffenBenOliSteffen Wulff Petersen(Founder)in
Co-investorsNext47AntlerBAG VenturesFelicis VenturesGradient VenturesNorthzone+1 more
Co-investorsAfterWork VenturesArray Ventures Management LlcAVVBonfire Ventures
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesSeltz · siliconangle.com · Jun 25, 2026
Sona · businesscloud.co.uk · Apr 8, 2026
Sona · retailtechinnovationhub.com · Apr 2, 2026
Manufact · venturebeat.com · Mar 11, 2026
Klearly · nltimes.nl · Jan 16, 2026
Jet HR · news.fintech.io · Jun 19, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Italian Founders Fund made?
- Italian Founders Fund has 26 tracked investments, including 1 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Italian Founders Fund invest at?
- Italian Founders Fund invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What is Italian Founders Fund's typical check size?
- Italian Founders Fund typically writes checks of $270K – $3.3M.
- What sectors does Italian Founders Fund focus on?
- Italian Founders Fund focuses on Enterprise Software, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Italian Founders Fund located?
- Italian Founders Fund is headquartered in Italy, IT.
- Does Italian Founders Fund lead rounds?
- Yes, Italian Founders Fund leads investment rounds.
- Who does Italian Founders Fund co-invest with?
- Italian Founders Fund most often shares deals with DFF Ventures, Italian Angels for Growth, Balderton Capital, among 27 tracked co-investors.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamLorenzo Franzi, Italian Founders Fund: Founding with Focus: Why Italy’s VC Moment Is Now
EUVC · Lorenzo Franzi
Images
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