The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Angelini Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Angelini Industries, have announced that they have signed an agreement to co-finance European start-ups in the biotechnology and digital health sectors with €150 million. This is the first agreement that the EIB has signed with a corporate venture capital firm in Europe in the healthcare sector and provides for Angelini Ventures and the EIB to invest €75 million each over the next six years.
Based on the agreement signed, the EIB and Angelini Ventures plan to co-invest in a total of 7-10 European start-ups developing innovative solutions particularly suited to market launch, for example in areas such as biotechnology, medical technology and digital health.
“ With initiatives such as this, we are strengthening our continent’s ability to drive technological innovation and generate tangible benefits for citizens, patients and businesses,” said Gelsomina Vigliotti, Vice-President of the EIB, in a statement. “Investing in biotechnology and digital health is essential because it accelerates research, improves the quality of care and supports the growth of companies capable of bringing cutting-edge solutions to market.”
The initiative, presented today at Angelini Ventures’ headquarters in Rome, is aligned with TechEU, the investment programme launched by the EIB Group to strengthen innovation and technological leadership in Europe. Through TechEU, the EIB Group aims to invest €70 billion in equity, quasi-equity, loans and guarantees over the three-year period 2025-2027, with the goal of mobilising €250 billion in investments in the real economy. The agreement also strengthens the role in the sector of Angelini Ventures, which was founded in 2022 with €300 million in funding from Angelini Industries, an Italian multinational active in the health, industrial technology and consumer goods sectors, and has already invested €125 million in 22 start-ups.
“The important agreement with the EIB allows us to place our Group’s commitment to innovation through venture capital within a strategic European context,” says Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, CEO of Angelini Industries. . “Being chosen by an institution such as the EIB for an ambitious project that aims to consolidate Europe’s role in healthcare innovation is an opportunity to work towards the common goal of translating researchers’ excellent ideas into products and services that can have a positive impact on people’s lives and the economic development of European countries.”
“The agreement with the EIB,” explains Paolo Di Giorgio, CEO of Angelini Ventures, “is a key step in strengthening our international presence and global vision. It is an essential line of development for accelerating access to the market for talent and innovative projects, facilitating strategic collaborations in the healthcare field and offering scaling opportunities for investments and partners. These elements are fundamental for accelerating growth and creating value in the life sciences, biotechnology and digital health sectors, promoting innovation, competitiveness and social impact, and enhancing European creativity at an international level.
As a first step in the new partnership, Angelini Ventures and the EIB intend to co-invest in the second round of financing for Adcytherix, a French biopharmaceutical company that develops ADCs (Antibody-Drug Conjugates), innovative oncology drugs, with the investment agreement currently being finalised. These targeted therapies combine antibodies with next-generation cytotoxic agents to increase precision, reduce toxicity and address resistance to existing treatments. The first round, which closed in October this year, was led by Bpifrance through its Large Venture and InnoBio investment strategies, and co-led by Kurma Partners, Andera Partners and Angelini Ventures.
Start-ups in Europe and Italy
With the European Commission Startup and Scale Up Strategy, the European Union aims to more effectively overcome the two main obstacles that startups encounter in their growth, namely the transition from research to development and commercialisation and the leap from startup to company. In this context, the collaboration between the European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group) and corporate venture capital firms helps to facilitate the identification and financing of innovative companies, with the possibility of accelerating the growth, scalability and competitiveness of European start-ups thanks to greater availability of capital. A further objective is to stimulate a possible European IPO market, which would contribute to increasing the industrial relevance of European stock exchanges, with an increase in the capacity to maintain the value generated within the Old Continent. This tool could prove very useful, especially in light of the fact that, as highlighted in the European Commission’s communication ‘The EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy Choose Europe to start and scale’, between 2008 and 2021, almost 30% of European ‘unicorns’ moved outside the EU and only 8% of global scaleups are based in Europe.
In 2024, there were 15,000 rounds in the United States, with a total of €210 billion invested, and 11,000 rounds in Asia, with a total value of €70 billion. In Europe, there were 9,600 rounds for a total of €57 billion financed, with a 16% decrease in the number of deals and an 8% decrease in the total amount compared to 2023.
During the same period, the United States saw a 4% increase in the number of deals and a 29% increase in total financing.
In Italy, total venture capital investment in 2024 amounted to €1.5 billion in 417 rounds, up 31% compared to 2023.
The Italian venture capital market, in which the main sectors are deep tech, software and life sciences, saw a total investment of €300 million in Italy in 2024, with a total of 62 rounds. A €12 million investment in Serenis, co-led by Angelini Ventures, the €12 million investment in Serenis, represents the main deal in the life sciences sector (and among the top five overall) for the third quarter of 2025 (source: venture capital report produced by Growth Capital and Italian Tech Alliance, in partnership with CDP Venture Capital).
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