Business angels in Italy: who they are and how to approach them

Picture a founder in Bologna with a working prototype, forty paying users and a €300,000 gap in her plan. Venture funds are one door. The other belongs to a person who sold their own company a few years ago and now spends a couple of evenings a month listening to pitches.

That person is a business angel. In about eight minutes you’ll know who business angels in Italy are, what the latest survey says about how much they invest, which clubs and networks exist, what they expect from you and how to approach them. This is one stop on our beginner’s map from zero to a first round. New to the vocabulary? Start there.

What is a business angel, and how is it different from a VC?

A business angel buys shares in a startup with their own money, often when the company has a product and a few customers but not much else. Because the money is theirs, the decision is personal. There’s no fund to report to and no mandate to fill, which is why an angel can say yes to a company a fund couldn’t justify.

A venture capital fund works the other way round. It invests money that belongs to its own investors, has a fixed life and needs companies that can return the whole fund. Our guide to venture capital in Italy shows how that limits the rounds a fund can take on.

How much do business angels invest in Italy?

The fullest count is the annual survey by IBAN, covered by Forbes Italia on 4 June 2026. It rests on answers from 386 people in the Italian angel community, with scientific supervision by Vincenzo Capizzi (Università del Piemonte Orientale and Bocconi). The headline: in 2025 Italian business angels took part in investments worth about €920 million.

Read that figure with care, because it adds deals done in syndication to deals done alone. The ones angels did entirely on their own came to €73.7 million, against €74.5 million in 2024. The Venture Capital Monitor, a separate count by LIUC University and AIFI, ends up in the same place: 74 operations by angels alone, worth about €74 million.

Syndication is the pattern to remember. In 2025, 81% of the deals were done that way (73% in 2024), with an average of six angels per deal (five a year earlier). In practice you won’t pitch one person. You’ll pitch a group, and one of its members has to champion you.

The mix is moving towards bigger deals: only 12% were under €50,000 in 2025, against 38% in 2024. Some 39% were between €500,000 and €2 million, and 16% were above €2 million. By sector, ICT drew 30% of the investments, then food (14%), financial services (12%), other services (11%), healthcare (9%) and consumer goods (7%).

Where you live matters too. According to the survey, the North is home to 73% of Italian angels, the Centre to 24% and the South to just 3%. A founder in Bari or Catania should plan on trains and video calls. Two more figures from the survey: 35% of those asked say they intend to raise their allocation, and 56% say they apply ESG or impact criteria when they assess a company.

Which business angel networks and clubs exist in Italy?

Many angels invest through a club, because it brings them deals to look at and people to share the risk with. Three names come up again and again.

Network	Where	Focus
IBAN (Italian Business Angels Network)	Italy, national non-profit association	Brings together territorial angel networks, investor clubs, individual angels and professionals; publishes the annual survey on angel investing
Italian Angels for Growth	Milan (Corso Magenta), with offices in Rome, Florence and Udine	Life science, deep tech, digital and fintech; 300+ members; €0.2M to €1.5M per deal; members form a consortium for each investment
Club degli Investitori	Angels in Italy and abroad (city not stated on its site)	450+ angels; pre-seed to Series A; can lead or co-invest; monthly Investor Days; membership by invitation

Both clubs ask startups to apply through Dealum, an online platform, so that’s the front door. At the Club degli Investitori, promising ventures are showcased at monthly Investor Days, and a structured due diligence follows before any investment.

Looking for other kinds of investor? Our guide on how to find investors for a startup covers the wider map, and equity crowdfunding in Italy is the route if you’d rather have many small investors than a few large ones. The full picture of where Italian startup money comes from sits in how to raise capital for a startup in Italy.

What do business angels expect before they invest?

Start with what Italian Angels for Growth says on its own page: a prototype, early traction metrics and founders who work on the company full time. A hundred deals are examined every two months, 3% reach the members’ vote and 2% get invested. So apply when you’re ready. Not the week you have the idea.

Its screening committee has nine experienced angels. They score every startup on five things. How good the founders are. How big the market could be. What is unique and defensible. What has been achieved so far. And what the terms and structure of the deal look like. Build your own pitch around the same five, whichever angel you meet.

Terms are where first-time founders get stuck, because angels will ask what you’re worth and how much of the company you’re selling. Our guide to how much equity to give away at pre-seed and seed walks through both. Still at the stage of asking people you know? Start with your first €50,000 from friends, family and angels.

How do you approach a business angel?

Nothing exotic here, but the order matters.

1. Start with size. Italian Angels for Growth puts €0.2 million to €1.5 million into each deal. If your round is €60,000, you’re knocking on the wrong door.
2. Apply on Dealum. Italian Angels for Growth and Club degli Investitori both take applications there.
3. Your first email can be small: a short deck, the figures behind it, and three plain answers. How much are you raising? At what valuation? What will the money pay for?
4. Ask who would lead. In a group deal the lead investor does the negotiating, and the others take the same terms.
5. Expect questions after the pitch, then a term sheet and due diligence. Due diligence is where a messy cap table or a missing company document gets found.

Do business angels get a tax break in Italy?

Sometimes, and it can tip a decision. Say you’re an individual putting money into the capital of an innovative startup. Under the de minimis scheme you can claim a 65% IRPEF deduction on up to €100,000 per tax year, as long as you keep the shares for at least three years. The scope changed in 2025, though. Innovative SMEs counted until 31 December 2024, and now only innovative startups do. MIMIT, the Ministry, last updated its page on 22 September 2026.

Two limits. The incentive is for individuals, not companies. And a single startup can’t receive more than €300,000 of de minimis aid over three years (EU Regulation 2831/2023). Planning a larger round? Ask a professional how it fits. Our guide to investor tax breaks in Italy and the US compares the options, and the innovative startup status and its requirements tell you whether your company qualifies.

Your checklist before the first meeting

• Know your round: how much, at what valuation, for what share of the company.
• Have something people can try, plus the first numbers: users, revenue, a waiting list.
• Be ready to say that you work on the company full time, or exactly when you will.
• Check whether your company can qualify as an innovative startup, since that’s what lets your investors claim the deduction.
• Pick your door: Dealum for the two big clubs, a warm contact for an individual angel.
• Tidy the cap table and the company documents now, because someone will ask for them.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change: check the official MIMIT page or ask a professional before you invest or raise money.