Fundraising Fox
Italian Founders Fund
Venture capitalMilano · Pre-Seed–Series A · 21 people tracked
Find your way into Italian Founders Fund
1,700 people in our graph share verified history with the Italian Founders Fund team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Investment thesis
Italian Founders Fund positions itself as Italy's first founder-backed VC, investing from pre-seed to Series A in companies with 'Italian DNA': born in Italy, expanding into Italy, or founded by Italians abroad. The fund leads or co-leads early rounds and helps portfolio companies unlock global capital when scaling. Built by former founders who returned to Italy after international careers, it emphasizes speed, extreme transparency, and founder-friendly terms. It backs highly ambitious teams with a global mindset, offering initial investments of €250k to €3m plus active support from an operating team and a community of leading Italian entrepreneurs and builders.
Source: firm website, verified Sep 27, 2026.
Team · 21 people
from the firm's website & public directories
Founder mafia
The Italian Founders Fund mafia →7 people who came through Italian Founders Fund went on to found or lead other companies.
What they invest in
from 25 of 27 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×15SaaS ×13Enterprise Software ×12Data & Infrastructure ×4Fintech ×4Energy ×3Healthtech ×3HR Tech ×3
HQs:Italy×9European Union×3United States×3Iceland×1Netherlands×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 12 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×62 founders×33 founders×3
Where their founders studiedfrom 17 founders with education data
Università Bocconi ×3Imperial College London ×2Politecnico di Milano ×2
What their founders studiedfrom 16 founders with field-of-study data
Economics ×6Engineering ×6Computer Science ×4Business & Management ×3Finance & Accounting ×2
Investments · 27 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 42025 · 32024 · 29 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)in
Co-investorsPitchdriveMana Ventures
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
Commerce Clarity provides AI-powered agents that automate retail product catalog operations, ensuring accurate product data across downstream systems like search, marketplaces, and ads.
AI & Machine LearningE-commerceRetail TechSaaSMilan, IT
Daniele Vella(Founder)in
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)inMarco Cortinovis(COO, Lead Auditor)inAlessandro Vaccarino(CTO, Lead Auditor)
Co-investorsEnzo VenturesItalian Angels for GrowthMoonstone Venture CapitalSella Direct VenturesExor Ventures
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
Edoardo Arbizzi(Co-Founder)inEdoardo Gava(Co-Founder)in
Co-investorsDFF VenturesGlobal Founders CapitalPICUS CAPITALShapersShine Capital
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 VenturesFJ Labs
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
Niccolo Valerio(Founder)in
Co-investorsBrainstorm VenturesAlecla7Club degli InvestitoriFrontline 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.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningEnergySaaSViterbo, IT
Joseph Perrotta(Founder/CEO)inKaan Durmaz(Founder/CTO)in
Co-investorsVireo VenturesY Combinator
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+6 more
Klearly provides an integrated payment solution for the Horeca (hotel, restaurant, and café) industry, connecting payment infrastructure with businesses' existing POS systems.
FintechFoodTechSaaS
Guy Griv(Founder)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 TechDurham, US
Alex Krawchick(Co-founder)inEric Pfahl(Co-founder)inMatt Webbink(Co-founder)in
Co-investorsStudio VCIDEAIDEA Fund Partners
Mama Health is a platform connecting people living with chronic and rare conditions to share experiences and learn from others, while providing direct patient insights to the life sciences industry for research and treatment development.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechMedical Devices
Mattia Marco Caruson(Founder)in
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 GrowthAnalog VenturesAndreessen HorowitzCrucible CapitalGallery+1 more
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
Co-investorsExceptional Ventures
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 VenturesExor 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 VenturesB CapitalB Capital GroupfuturepresentMango Capital+1 more
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Skillvue offers a skills data platform that uses AI and scientific methods to give enterprises predictive data on employee talent and competencies, integrating with existing HR systems.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHR TechSaaSMilan, IT
Co-investors360 Capital14Peaks CapitalGlobal Founders Capital
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
BenOliSteffen Wulff Petersen(Founder)in
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesGradient VenturesNext47NorthzoneSpeedinvestAccel+25 more
Wynwood House provides furnished accommodations aimed at giving travelers a home-like stay across various destinations, along with local recommendations for exploring each city.
ConsumerPropTechTravel & HospitalityMiami, US
Juan Garay(Founder)in
Co-investorsFen Ventures
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Substackcdn
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesCompri · thesaasnews.com · Jun 29, 2026
Seltz · finsmes.com · Jun 24, 2026
Invertix · finsmes.com · May 29, 2026
Pillar · finsmes.com · May 12, 2026
Cato AI · trysignalbase.com · May 4, 2026
Sona · finsmes.com · Apr 1, 2026
Manufact · ycombinator.com · Jul 24, 2025
Jet HR · finsmes.com · Jun 18, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Italian Founders Fund made?
- Italian Founders Fund has 27 tracked investments, including 7 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 Milano, 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 35 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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