Investors with €39bn AUM gather in Bologna to back Italy’s next tech leaders

Bologna will host the third edition of its flagship investor event this week, bringing together venture funds, corporates and start-ups to spotlight Italy’s emerging tech champions and cement the city’s role as a hub in Europe’s ‘Data Valley’

More than 300 venture capital and technology leaders will meet in Bologna today for the third edition of The Bologna Gathering, an international investor event focused on accelerating Italian and European innovation.

The two-day conference, held on 17–18 September at venues across the city, will bring together venture capital and private equity funds with more than €39bn in assets under management, alongside founders of unicorns and scale-ups, corporate executives and policymakers.

Delegates from Europe, the Americas and Asia will include representatives from White Star Capital, BlackRock, Eight Roads, Balderton Capital and Northzone, as well as investors behind some of the biggest Italian tech deals of 2025. 

These include Namirial, the software group valued at €1.1bn after its March exit, and cybersecurity firm Exein, which secured a €70m funding round in July.

Start-ups and scale-ups from more than ten sectors — spanning AI, cybersecurity, fintech and cloud — will also take part. Participants include space logistics unicorn D-Orbit, fintech group Satispay and enterprise AI firm Domyn. 

They will be joined by major Italian corporates such as Leonardo, TeamSystem, Fincantieri, Hera Group, Fastweb and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The Bologna Gathering is supported by the city’s CTE COBO innovation hub and was co-founded by ART-ER, the Metropolitan City and Municipality of Bologna, and the Emilia-Romagna Region. 

It has been selected as the closing showcase for Italy’s Houses of Emerging Technologies programme, a MIMIT-backed network of 13 regional hubs.

This year’s programme includes talks from Alec Ross, Laurens Groenendijk, Elena Moneta, Massimiliano Pellegrini of Namirial, Gianni Cuozzo of Exein, and Alessandro Scortecci of CDP Venture Capital, among others. Events will take place at Bologna’s Salaborsa library, Bologna Business School and Palazzo De Rossi.

Marina Silverii, executive director of ART-ER, said: “ART-ER is among the founding partners of The Bologna Gathering and played a key role in launching this important initiative, fully aligned with our institutional mission: to create and support the development of a dynamic and mature regional start-up ecosystem. We know that capital is essential not only for founding start-ups, but even more so for helping them scale — and the international investors involved in TBG, who have grown over the years in scale, reputation, and investment capacity, represent a unique opportunity for the growth of innovative businesses in our region. At the same time, I am confident these investors present will recognise the full potential of our companies and our territory in terms of innovation, talent, and competitiveness.”

Matteo Lepore, mayor of Bologna and the Metropolitan City, added: “The Bologna Gathering is concrete proof that Bologna is now recognised internationally as a strategic engine of European innovation. Over these two days, our city is hosting some of the leading global players in venture capital, technology entrepreneurship and research, reaffirming its position as a central hub of Data Valley and an ideal setting for nurturing Italian excellence of the future. As the Municipality and Metropolitan City, together with the Emilia-Romagna Region, we continue to invest in infrastructure, spaces, and projects that fuel the innovation ecosystem: from the Technopole and the AI Factory to the role of our House of Emerging Technologies, now a strategic partner of this gathering. Supporting events like this strengthens Bologna’s position as a capital of responsible, inclusive, and sustainable innovation. Our commitment is that the future will be born here, for the benefit of the entire community.”

Organisers said the 2025 edition is expected to attract thousands of visitors and underlines Bologna’s growing role as an international centre for venture capital, digital innovation and public–private collaboration.

Main image: The Bologna Gathering 2025 returns to the city on 17–18 September for its third edition. Photo: Supplied