We created a list of active Italian investors to help them find new initiatives to fund, and startups to seek new partners.
Dear startup people,
let’s admit it: coronavirus kicked our ass so hard we'll be able to sit down again only in 2050 (just in time to meet the extreme consequences of climate change).
Due to the measures imposed by governments in many countries, the global economy is at risk: many companies are closing, production and consumption are collapsing, and so are employment levels.
In such a scenario, recent startups will probably be the first to fall, as their structure (not to mention their nature) is agile-but-fragile. As startups are often the main innovation driver, their extinction will also implicate a substantial, further backlash on the economy. And that's what we call a loop, ladies and gents.
That could mean the complete default of the countries, like Italy, that opted for total lockdown. Of course, unless we take action.
Fortunately, as a Venture Builder, "to take action" is our approach to life itself.
Actinvest.it
Initiatives to face the crisis soon arose all over Europe, such as COVID-19 European Investor Status. In the wake of other such efforts, we created a list of active Italian investors, Actinvest: it will help them find new initiatives to fund, and startups to seek new partners.
In general, it will help to restart the innovation and entrepreneurship environment in Italy.
How does it work
As everything during the coronavirus seemed to become complicated, we wanted to keep it simple.
We created a website allowing investors and startuppers to sign up and drop their contacts.
We asked investors some essential information, as their structure (Angel Investor, Venture Capital, Club Deal, Family Office), the sector in which they're more likely to invest, the amount of investment they usually do. And above all, we ask them if they're active or not: all this information together will help us profile them and allow in-target startups to contact them.
On the startup side, we asked the industry they’re working in, the phase the startup is getting trough and the type of investments they’re looking for. Finally, we asked their email to share with them the investors list once completed.
The results
Since the very beginning, many people showed interest in the Actinvest project. Newspapers, blogs and communities shared the initiative again and again and, by now, 50 investors and 90+ startups joined it - and growing.
So here's a quick overview of the Actinvest environment so far.
At the moment I'm writing, 50 investors joined the initiative: the majority of them declared they prefer to take action in the pre-seed (61%) and seed (22%) stage.
Also, 27% of investors stated that they don't have any preferences when it comes to the field of investment. Others pointed, for example, that they favour investing in the Food (11%), Healthcare (10%) or Fintech (8%) sector.
But the economy doesn't rely (only) on good intentions, so let's talk about money: we asked investors to point out what is the minimum and the maximum amount of investment they usually do.
The average of the investments is € 378.436, with a minimum of 3.000 and maximum of € 5.000.000. Overall, subscriber investors altogether can move around 8,7 millions on a medium investment. That's a boost!
From Actinvest to Ogenki
Ok, now we had a robust database to share freely. But for us, as innovators, it wasn't enough: hard times requires strong resolutions.
So we decided to merge Actinvest with Ogenki, the fundraising platform we use here in Mamazen, and open it to all the Italian startups. For real. Forever. For free.
Ogenki was our private network of investors: since today it's open to everybody and it's free.
Give it a try: www.ogenki.it
