Venture capital is the risk capital contribution from an investment fund to finance the startup or growth in sectors with high development potential. Europe, which historically gets less investment and capital, seems to be climbing to the top of the rankings, and European startups and hubs are competing with Silicon Valley startups.
Europe leads the global ranking with low dynamism but high sustainability scores
Dealroom’s research shows how world venture capital is rising with 264 billion euros invested in the first six months of 2021 and with a pace of two unicorns created every day in 2021, or private startups valued at over 1 billion dollars. This growth by Europe, which ranks among the top places in the 2021 Global Attractiveness Index.
The Global Attractiveness Index clearly shows that the United States is leading, followed by Germany with a score of 6.70 difference. Both have low dynamism and high sustainability. The third is China, with an excellent rating in terms of dynamism and an average score in terms of sustainability.
Italy is 20th in the world ranking, with a medium level of dynamism and good sustainability. The country is growing more slowly than other European and international countries and has attracted fewer investments in the last few years.
The trend is changing
Italy has a good and steady pace of growth and has bridged the gap with other European countries in recent years.
The EY Venture Capital Barometer 2021 – Italy, highlights how investments showed good growth also in pandemics period of 2020. In 2021 Italy reaches record figures, exceed the threshold of one billion capital obtained and collects exceptional rounds and exits. It also overcomes the difficulties and limitations brought about by pandemic. Therefore, our country is starting to run again, with significant growth compared to that to 2020, but unfortunately remains distant from the rest of the European countries.
The five sectors in which the greater capital has been invested represent approximately 75% of total deposits of the year.
The main vertical of 2021 was certainly the Foodtech, which saw investments of € 261.1m. Fintech follows with € 255.4m, the sector that also, last year had more attracted the interest of investors.
The vertical which occupies the third place is Energy & Recycling, with € 164.3m; Proptech occupies the fourth place with € 147.3m. Last place is won by Health &
Lifescience has obtained € 98.9m and result very close to the 2020 figure (€ 102m). Investors renewed interest in this sector is also due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Investments have been very fragmented with the higher number of rounds (# 57 compared with #38 of Foodtech), but smaller than the those mentioned above.
