Italian start-ups crazy for Spain: but is it really the Eldorado?

One of the most pressing issues is international expansion.

And here the gaze runs to the Spanish ecosystem.

Greg Hoffman, già Chief Marketing Officer di Nike, durante il suo speech a South Summit.

Take the 20 start-ups with an international presence today in the P101 portfolio: over half are in Spain. But the opposite is also true, because 10% arrived in Italy from the Iberian Peninsula.

Similar numbers for Prana Ventures, a fund specialised in seed and post-seed: in their portfolio as many asfive of the seven 'internationalised' start-ups have chosen the Iberian land.

'In reality there are no big discounts in landing in Spain,' explains Stefano Guidotti, partner at P101, 'there is a cultural and linguistic proximity, but the two markets have intrinsic differences that make the passage challenging in any case, albeit softer than those in Germany or the UK, for example.

Stefano Guidotti, partner di P101, società di venture capital che ha in portafoglio una decina di startup italiane sbarcate in Spagna.

"The greatest difficulty is finding the right talents to allow you to be a 'startup within a startup' in another country," admits Guidotti, "people also make the difference in the internationalisation process.

Lisa Di Sevo, ceo e managing partner di Prana Ventures, fondo specializzato in investimenti seed e post-seed.

"Landing in Spain is not always as easy as one might think," echoes Lisa Di Sevo, ceo and managing partner of Prana Ventures, a fund specialising in seed and post-seed investments.

"The perception of cultural proximity may make the Spanish market seem like a natural choice for expansion, but in reality sectors such as travel, insurtech, education and healthcare present very different dynamics compared to Italy,'' Di Sevo continues. continues Di Sevo.

'It is not uncommon for some Italian start-ups to find themselves backtracking, postponing market entry. A conscious go-to-market strategy adapted to the local context is needed'.

The economic structure of the two countries, however, is similar.

"Many SMEs, the weight of banks and industry, therefore a technological supply chain suitable for both in B2B and consumer," reasons Alessandro Astone, formerly at Oracle, at Google (where from Dublin he was country leader Italy New Business Sales) and Stripe (as lead of Italy, Mena and Latam Growth Expansion Partner), now Investor & Advisor at Sunlit Ventures.

Alessandro Astone, già in Google (dove da Dublino è stato country leader Italia New Business Sales) e Stripe (come lead of Italy, Mena e Latam Growth Expansion Partner), ora Investor & Advisor in Sunlit Ventures.

"But Spain, in addition to its foreign vocation, unlike ushasn't lost champions like Inditex or Telefónica, which in turn form the foundations for building a tech ecosystem. As for talent, then, Barcelona is very attractive for founders, creatives and developers, while Madrid is stronger in the corporate and executive world. With a very strong axis between the two cities that we do not find in Italy'.

Attention must also be paid to timing. "The path of internationalisation must not be premature: first Italian start-ups must be strengthened at home," clarifies Ezio Ravaccia, director and partner of Primo Climate, a vertical fund dedicated to Climatech straddling seed and early - . The important thing is to proceed step by step, even with partnerships, which require lower capital injections'.

A Madrid la 14° edizione del South Summit (grande evento tech esportato anche in Brasile e Corea) ha attirato da tutto il mondo 140 investitori e 17 unicorni, società con valutazione superiore al miliardo di dollari.

However, it should not be forgotten that Spain represents an important model for a growing Italy, recalls Gianluca D'Agostino, founder & managing partner of The Tech Shop.

The three limits of the Italian ecosystem

"It is not an easy market, but one that grows faster than Italy, has the outlet of South America and a greater capacity for internationalisation thanks also to theLatin American community in the United States," reasons Pasquale Tuosto, cfo of Cosmico, an Italian start-up based in Madrid.

Pasquale Tuosto, cfo di Cosmico, startup italiana di job matching con sede a Madrid.

"Compared to Spain and France, the limitations of our startup ecosystem are threefold: lack of long-term vision, private lag and 'dwarfism' due to isolation and lack of institutional continuity," Tuosto continues. Start-ups need long cycles and a broad funnel. We need stability and more global bridges to bring out Italian players'.

Let us also not forget the labour market. "Spain has the great advantage of attracting low-cost talent: Barcelona and Madrid can sport scaleups and unicorns with 5-10 years, while in Italy profiles of this type are scarce," clarifies Virginia Bassano, VC Investor of Eight Roads, a US venture capital giant now strong with $12 billion in assets under management.

Virginia Bassano, VC Investor di Eight Roads, colosso statunitense del venture capital forte di 12 miliardi di dollari di masse gestite.

Specialising in rounds between 10 and 30 million, in Europe it has invested in 50 companies, including nine unicorns. None Italian. "There is still a long way to go," he explains, "according to our estimates todaywe are where Spain was five years ago and France eight".

Two Italian start-ups made it to the finals at South Summit among the hundred selected (divided into ten macro-sectors). One is Soource, founded in January 2024 in the NOI Techpark Südtirol/Alto Adige, the technology park in Bolzano: it is an AI platform capable of automatically identifying the best suppliers from a vast company database.

Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, coo e co-founder di Soource, startup italiana finalista a South Summit: è una piattaforma AI in grado di individuare automaticamente i migliori fornitori da un vasto database aziendale.

Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, coo and co-founder of the start-up already with 18 employees and a turnover of EUR 400,000, is a serial entrepreneur and visiting associate professor at the Luiss Business School in Rome and the IE University in Madrid.

'Spain is not the Eldorado,' he explains, 'but it represents a great opportunity, due to the size of the market and its scalability: culturally similar but with less bureaucracy. Plus it has higher volumes of investment in start-ups than Italy'.

The other Italian start-up finalist is Tiledesk, which enables enterprises to create autonomous AI agents to improve customer service and optimise virtual processes: no need to write code, thanks to a drag-and-drop interface.

Michele Pomposo, co-founder di Tiledesk, altra startup italiana finalista a South Summit: permette alle imprese di creare agenti AI autonomi per migliorare l’assistenza clienti e ottimizzare i processi virtuali.

'We have 130 customers,' explains co-founder Michele Pomposo, 'some of which came in the early days of the company from Spain: a market where we would like to grow in the future, also in terms of investments.