In 2017, Baumann and Köhler defined the Venture Builder as “an organization that actively assembles new ventures in a factory-like manner, i.e. focusing on speed, efficiency and scale, using standardized processes and shared resources”. Almost 7 years have passed since then, and the Venture Builder phenomenon is gaining more and more importance in the ecosystem of innovation and the creation of new businesses in Italy. They are organizations that bring together a team of experts: entrepreneurs, investors, managers with highly specialized skills, in contexts of contamination, to build innovative realities from scratch that solve problems for the world and in society, for people and for the environment.
The Italian Tech Week 2023 event, how to participate in the tech conference which will have guests Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Brian Chesky (Airbnb) by Pier Luigi Pisa 05 September 2023
They call themselves “startup factories”: their business model that starts from an idea, transforms it into a solution and brings it to the market, creating a startup. To do this, venture building follows a real “construction” process in which it uses its know-how, its resources and its network of knowledge to develop a business idea by creating an innovative company and taking a direct role in all its phases, from creation, to management, to execution. Not only that, in parallel the venture builder takes care of raising the funds necessary to support the startup (including public funding or European investments), accompanying it until the launch of its product or service.
The beating heart of the venture builder method is to intercept talents and brilliant minds, and build an unprecedented path around them which, starting from an entrepreneurial reasoning, leads to the construction of new Italian companies that have the ambition of improving the world in which we live. After all, as Thomas Edison said, “Vision without execution is hallucination”.
Towards the Italian Tech Week The young Italy of Venture Capital by Gabriella Rocco 22 September 2023
Who does Venture Building in Italy
To date, according to the GSSN (Global Startup Studio Network) report, there are approximately 600 venture builders worldwide who create startups with a 70% success rate five years after birth. So, internationally, the number has grown exponentially in recent years.
In Italy there is great excitement around these new vehicles of innovation, whose number of protagonists increases every year, joining already consolidated realities such as WDA, founded in Rome in January 2021 by Roberto Macina (who created and led the startup Qurami, acquired by uFirst in 2018) and Mario Costanzo. After around 30 months of activity, WDA has launched 3 startups: Profit Farm (fintech), Prime Tutor (edtech) and Starcks (web3), all financed by private investors for a total of almost two million euros.
StartypGym, founded in September 2021 by Enrico Pandian (founder, among other things, of the startups Everli and FrescoFrigo), Giuseppe Balzano and Tarek Fahmy. In 24 months StartypGym has launched 8 startups: Klink, Quisto, Levigata, Presto, Piece, Rightone, Easypaghe, Catalisi. All multi-sector companies ranging from fintech to proptech, from food to health.
FoolFarm, founded in Milan in 2020 by Andrea Cinelli (the creator of Libero.it), develops startups both starting from internal projects and in open innovation mode on behalf of companies, focusing on solutions based mainly on artificial intelligence. FoolFarm has closed two rounds of financing with a raising of 5.6 million euros. Its startups in the portfolio are: Voiceme, IIO, Fragmentalis, Aida and Veendo.
Vento – Venture Building, born in Turin in 2022, is the Italian chapter of Exor Ventures that helps talented young people launch businesses in Italy. The project is led by Diyala D’Aveni, Head of Investments & Venture Building, and is divided into a 5-month path that provides the opportunity for talents to create a startup with high development potential from scratch, thanks to mentorship activities, partner support and access to a network of investors.
In 18 months, Vento invested in 52 companies, of which 10 were born from the venture building program: Nebuly, Liqi, Fido Rent, Eoliann, JustSolve, Zefi, Lexroom, Flami, Plino, Rellai.
The program has proven effective in providing the resources and skills needed to help participants turn their ideas into successful businesses ready to receive capital. The new 40 aspiring entrepreneurs can apply by 8 October 2023 for the next edition.
Towards ITW23 Turin, the factory of the future by Stefano Lo Russo* 22 September 2023