Italian Founders Fund

What a #founders’ night! 🚀   Thank you to all the founders who joined our #SMEs Tech Leaders Event—not only for attending but for bringing your experiences, passion, successes, and even the hard-earned lessons that make the community stronger. It was incredibly inspiring to have you all with us, and we hope the night was as insightful for you as it was for us!   A huge thank you to āltitude - it was an absolute pleasure to host this event together. Your perspective added a new depth to the discussion, and we can’t wait to create more opportunities like this in the future.   And, of course, a special thank you to both the āltitude and Italian Founders Fund  teams for making this night a success!   Here’s to more moments like this. Stay tuned for what’s next! 🚀

👀 Are you building a killer #digital #solution for #SMEs? Do you want to meet other brilliant #founders who are innovating in the #SMETech space?   🚨 Then this event is for you! 🚨   Join us for an exclusive event hosted by āltitude and Italian Founders Fund, bringing together founders and investors focused on the SME Tech space in Italy and Europe!   🚀 You’ll hear startup #success #stories, with insights on scaling and fundraising, along with practical advice on go-to-market strategies, effective sales techniques, and how to crack the #SME market.   🖥️ We’ll also explore how #technology and #AI are transforming #SMEs, current trends in #SMETech in Italy and Europe, and hiring challenges startups face when building the right team to scale!   Are you a founder in the SMEs Tech space interested in joining the conversation? 👉 Event details: https://lu.ma/u586dfsx   🔒 Please note that participation is subject to approval.

The last few weeks have been #hectic but full of energy and incredible moments! 🚀 From team #gatherings to founder #meetups and now connecting with our LPs, we’ve loved bringing our community together across so many exciting occasions 🌍 • On September 15, we welcomed Irene, our newest Principal and she represented IFF at The Bologna Gathering —what a fantastic opportunity for the team! • At Italian Tech Week, together with Talent Garden, we had the pleasure of hosting our founders as well as some friends from the international VC and startup community for a tea-time on September 26, exchanging stories, challenges, and bold visions for the future ☕️ • This Tuesday, we visited Giampaolo Cagnin in Parma, one of our brilliant LPs and incredible entrepreneur in the food industry. His story of success continues to inspire us all! 🍽️ • Yesterday, our founding partner Lorenzo, was at the Milan Fintech Summit talking about how AI is changing the investment landscape coming together with both the Italian and the international fintech community 🔥 At IFF, we believe deeply in the power of #community and the #ecosystem that nurtures it. These events are just a reminder of how much stronger we are when we come together. Thank you to our #founders, #entrepreneurs, and #partners for making this journey special. Can’t wait to see what we achieve next! 💥 Stay tuned for our next events, we have some some pretty exciting things coming up 👀

🚨 Founders at #ITW, this one’s for you! 🚨   Join us for Tea Time for Founders, by Founders, a relaxed afternoon designed to bring together founders over tea, cookies, and conversations in the #Mezzanino of OGR🍪☕. Hosted by Italian Founders Fund & Talent Garden, this is your opportunity to connect, share stories, and build a supportive community focused on growth and wellbeing 💬.   ⏰ Please register by 7pm today to secure your spot — as space is limited, we’ll be approving registrations to ensure a founders-only crowd!   🗓️ Event details & RSVP here: https://lu.ma/6sg01611   See you there!

🚀 Proud to celebrate an important milestone with Jet HR! After just one year in the market, they’ve secured a €12M seed round to continue revolutionizing payroll and HR management in Italy. 💼💸   This success is a testament to their relentless focus on solving a critical issue for businesses and employees, reflected in their growing waitlist of companies eager to get onboard.   We’re honored to have backed Jet HR alongside Picus Capital, Exor N.V., 2100 Ventures and a stellar lineup of Italian founders and investors.   Congratulations to the Jet HR team for their vision and relentless drive. Exciting times ahead as they bring us closer to their ambitious goal: making sure 1 in 5 employees in Italy is paid through their platform.   Onwards and upwards! 🚀

Welcome, Irene! 👋🏻 We’re very pleased to announce the arrival of our newest team member: after 10+ years in Silicon Valley, Irene Mingozzi has now joined us as a #Principal! 🚀 With both C-level startup experience and a decade of investing activity, mainly in seed and pre-seed, Irene brings the knowledge that can help founders accelerate growth. Her time in the Bay Area also helped demonstrate the importance of community and connections, which at the early stage can make all the difference. We can’t wait to see how she’ll contribute to our growing community of Italian founders — so benvenuta, Irene! ✨

We are very excited to announce a new IFF investment! Skillvue raises €2.5M to defeat the global skills gap 💪 The Skills Gap Crisis is a monumental #challenge: the World Economic Forum estimates it could cost the world $11.5 trillion in potential GDP growth over the next decade. Some big companies are trying to adopt skills-based approaches to tackle this issue, but their efforts are fragmented and limited. That’s why we were so excited to meet Nicolo Mazzocchi and Simone Patera, founders of Milan-based Skillvue. #Skillvue helps companies evaluate both candidates and existing employees in a fast, objective, and scalable manner. By leveraging proprietary AI, Skillvue enhances recruitment, talent development, and internal mobility, helping organizations adopt a skills-based approach. 🔍 What makes #Skillvue stand out? 🛞 A recruitment revolution: Asynchronous interviews powered by AI assess skills and motivation, making it easier to identify high-potential candidates. This method improves the ability to predict job performance by up to 5x, a game-changer for hiring junior candidates or roles where traditional resumes fall short. 🧑💼 Strategic talent management: Post-hiring, Skillvue helps HR departments analyze workforce skills at scale, enabling better talent placement, improved retention, and more effective career paths. Skillvue’s approach is already showing that it increases the likelihood of successful placements by 107% compared to traditional methods. They’ve already convinced industry giants like Carrefour, Credem, and Acquedotto Pugliese, and that’s just the start. We’re convinced that #Skillvue will keep leading the charge in transforming how businesses manage talent 🌟 #HRTech #AI #TalentManagement #Recruitment #Innovation

One pillar of our fund is our venture founder #community, which is a huge asset for the companies we invest in. So at our launch event on Monday, we asked those experienced founders what exactly it was about IFF that made them say, “Yes, I want to be part of this!” Here are a few of the responses: “We’re stronger together - the community is so large that I find myself in a fund with not just friends but even competitors, and that’s OK! The community is wonderful to see, and you’re doing a great job with it.” “It was initially a recommendation, and I expected to be putting my money in a traditional VC fund. But what I’ve found is incredible, there’s just so much engagement.” “We all have lots of other things going on, but IFF gives us the chance to get involved where we can, even with time constraints. It’s built on the right idea.” “Italy finally has a focused early-stage fund with an international approach to doing things!” And the good news for the companies we invest in over the coming years? The community is growing, compounding the value of being in the IFF network 💪💪 #WeAreFounders #Innovation #VentureCapital #IFF Some of the founders Venture Founders who are part of this initiative: Giuseppe Amitrano (Dils), Gabriele Antonelli (SpazioDati), Marcello Ascani (Flatmates Agency), Alessandro Ballerio (Elmec Informatica), Paolo Barletta (Arsenale Group), Francesco Beraldi (O2e), Ludovico Callerio (Testbusters), Fabio Cannavale (lastminute.com), Michele Casucci (Certilogo), Andrea Colombo (Tulou), Matteo de Brabant (JAKALA), Paolo De Nadai (WeRoad), Marco De Rossi (WeSchool), Riccardo Donadon (H-Farm), Luca Ferrari (Bending Spoons), Luca Foresti (Santagostino), Alessandro Fracassi (Moltiply), Marco Franciosa (Next 14), Francesco Fumagalli (Koinos Capital), Andrea Giannangelo (iubenda), Enrico Giacomelli (Namirial), Carlo Gualandri (Soldo), Danilo Iervolino (Multiversity), Matteo Lai (Empatica), Elena Lanati (Indicon), Marco Magnocavallo (Tannico), Simone Mancini (Scalapay), Roberto Marazzini (Boolean Careers), Luca Mascaro (Sketchin), Giuliano Messina (SosTariffe), Andrea Mignanelli (Cerved Group), Giacomo Moiso (Fluentify), Roberto Nicastro (Banca Aidexa), Diego Palano (Spiagge.it), Daniele Perito (Faire), Jacopo Pertile (AzzurroDigitale), Marco Pescarmona (Moltiply), Stefano Portu (ShopFully), Ivan Ranza (Epicode), Daniele Ratti (Fatture in Cloud), Donato Romano (La Piadineria), Luca Rossettini (D-Orbit), Enrico Saraval (Comdata), Federico Sargenti (Everli), Stefano Sirolli (RealStep), Davide Tavaniello (Hippocrates Holding), Paolo Tramonti (Bios Line), Fabio Troiani (BIP), Marco Trombetti (Translated), Marco Vittorelli (Openjobmetis), Francesco Zaccariello (Atida eFarma), Riccardo Zacconi (King.com), Giada Dattoli Zhang (Mulan Group).

Lorenzo Franzi and the Italian Founders Fund. Congratulations! <3 This week, Lorenzo and his team launched the Italian Founders Fund. They brought together over 100 founders and entrepreneurs, pooling €50M to support the next generation. It’s a big deal for Italian entrepreneurship. He has watched the Italian market with Global Founders Capital for three years. He has seen tremendous progress, met many talented people, and met ambitious new founders. Now, they're building the next wave of tech companies and putting Italy on the venture capital map. The pay-it-forward model—where experienced founders help the new generation—has worked in many places. Lorenzo and his team are making it happen in Italy with the Italian Founders Fund. They’re looking to work with angels and local investors. They're also excited about the growing interest from international investors. Their goal? Support Italian founders abroad and welcome foreign ventures to Italy. #ItalianFoundersFund #VC #Tech #Entrepreneurship #Italy #Innovation

We just announced IFF’s first €50m fund, and we are proud to say that our first investment has apparently been the worst-kept secret in the Italian startup ecosystem! (😉 Amy Lewin) But for those of you who haven’t heard, without further ado, we’d like to introduce Marco and Francesco, Co-Founders of Jet HR - 💻 Payroll made simple 💸 In the team, the IFF found kindred spirits: we’re both dedicated to helping companies have better outcomes and more growth. IFF does it by funding ambitious entrepreneurs, while Jet HR does it by making it easier for companies to do business in Italy by reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies. Marco and Francesco know how to win over both experienced founders and small business owners, thanks to their passion and ability to execute. If you think your HR processes are a headache, give them a follow and check out Jet HR - we’re glad we did 😉 #WeAreFounders #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Startup #VentureCapital