One billion euros to support innovative startups in Italy. This is the goal of National Innovation Fund, a new financial instrument in the hands of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti which will have the task of investing in the ecosystem between 2020 and 2022. The three-year plan "From Italy to innovate Italy" it was presented on June 23 at a time not easy for the Italian economy: the crisis and the recession have just begun bite and the innovative startups - over 11,000 registered in Italy - face an uncertain future. Provided in the 2019 budget law, the National Innovation Fund will have a support role for Venture Capital «to defend - so we read on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development - national interest by contrasting the constant transfer and dispersion of talents, intellectual property and other strategic assets which at best are "sold off" abroad with a dry loss for the country system ".
National Innovation Fund, 800 million already subscribed
Of the billion euro foreseen in the National Innovation Fund, 800 million have already been subscribed and will be used for direct and indirect investments in innovative startups and SMEs. Francesca Bria and Enrico Resmini are respectively president and CEO of the new body. The news was welcomed with satisfaction by the Italian startup world, kept for a long time on the margins when it came to concrete economic support to grow excellence and allow young companies to scale a business idea. As Luca De Biase explained on The sun 24 hours, "The economic policy favorable to startups was born in Italy in 2012, with the government of Mario Monti, when Corrado Passera was at the Mise". Almost a decade that has added a new milestone with the National Innovation Fund.
On the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti the main operations listed by the FNI are listed: «expand direct and indirect investments, also favoring the birth of new managers, who invest in startups in the various stages of development, from the early stage segment to the growth capital segment "; the focus is also on the university and research world, for which it will be necessary "to promote the birth of new investment instruments", perhaps by incentivizing the so-called "corporate venture capital"; the Fund will then aim to build a network within the Venture Capital world to weave foreign relations; finally, there is also room for an open innovation operation by Cdp in order to "encourage contact between the startups and the companies in which the Cdp Group participates, expanding the outlet opportunities for customers and markets for new businesses".
In 2021 the Late Stage Fund arrives
As explained during the press conference, the Fund is in turn composed of four already active Funds (Italy Venture I, Italy Venture II, Fund of VenturItaly Funds, Accelerator Fund), to which will be added two more (Corporate Fund Venture Capital and Tech Transfer Fund) later this year. In 2021 it will be the turn of a seventh - the Late Stage Fund - aimed precisely at those startups already underway that need a definitive push to launch themselves on the international markets. Meanwhile, by December, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is planning to approve 250 million investments.
Alessandro Di Stefano
