TALKING BUSINESS
New data from Dealroom, released ahead of the Wave by Vento conference in Turin, showed Italian start-ups attracted US $ 652 million in venture funding during the opening six months of the year. The increase added to evidence that Italy is strengthening its position within Europe’ s technology landscape, supported by a growing pool of founders, investors and companies capable of expanding internationally. reached US $ 44.2 billion during the first half of 2026, with US $ 25.2 billion invested in the second quarter alone. According to the report, that represented the continent’ s strongest quarterly venture performance since 2022.
The performance followed Italy’ s secondstrongest year for venture capital investment on record and came as funding activity accelerated across several strategically important sectors. Software, Artificial Intelligence, aerospace and advanced manufacturing were among the areas attracting investor interest, reflecting the breadth of the country’ s innovation economy.
Dealroom’ s figures showed the combined enterprise value of Italian technology companies had climbed from US $ 63 billion in 2022 to US $ 139.9 billion in 2026. That expansion represents an increase of more than US $ 76 billion in four years and illustrates how the ecosystem has matured.
The country’ s unicorn ecosystem was valued at US $ 57.3 billion, highlighting the emergence of businesses with the scale and ambition to compete in international markets. Italy has historically attracted less venture capital than some of Europe’ s largest technology hubs, but the latest figures suggest the gap is narrowing as successful companies create new talent, capital and entrepreneurial experience.
Bending Spoons has become one of the most visible symbols of that evolution. The Milanbased technology company’ s recent public market debut provided a landmark moment for the Italian ecosystem and demonstrated a potential route from domestic start-up to internationally recognised technology business.
Successful exits and public listings can have an impact far beyond the companies directly involved. Employees and founders often reinvest capital and experience into new ventures, while international investors gain greater visibility of the wider market.
That dynamic could become increasingly important as Italy seeks to build a more mature cycle of company creation, scaling and reinvestment.
The Italian figures arrived against a strengthening European investment backdrop. Venture capital investment across Europe
Italy’ s technology momentum
Venture capital investment: US $ 652 million in H1 2026 Year-on-year funding growth: 29 % Technology ecosystem enterprise value: US $ 139.9 billion Technology ecosystem value in 2022: US $ 63 billion Unicorn ecosystem value: US $ 57.3 billion AI funding in H1 2026: US $ 204 million AI sector enterprise value: US $ 8.2 billion AI jobs: Approximately 25,000
Europe’ s wider technology base has also continued to deepen. The region is now home to 717 unicorn companies with a combined value of US $ 2.8 trillion, demonstrating its ability to produce businesses capable of reaching substantial scale despite competition for capital and talent from the US and other global technology centres.
Artificial Intelligence remained one of the engines of investment. European AI companies raised US $ 24.5 billion during the first six months of 2026, already exceeding the US $ 21.1 billion invested across the sector during the whole of 2025.
That acceleration underlines the scale of investor demand for businesses developing AI models, infrastructure, applications and specialised industry platforms. It also places pressure on European markets to provide the computing infrastructure, energy, skills and growth capital required to keep promising companies headquartered and expanding within the region.
Italy is participating directly in that AI growth. Italian AI companies raised US $ 204 million during the first half of 2026, while the enterprise value of the domestic AI sector reached US $ 8.2 billion. That figure was almost three times the sector’ s value in 2022, demonstrating how quickly AI has become an important component of the country’ s technology economy.
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