Interview with Diyala D'Aveni of Vento: Can Italy surf the AI wave?

0:00Mike Butcher:Hello and welcome to Path Founders with me, Mike Butcher. Italy has long been synonymous with design, engineering and family-built industrial giants, from aerospace to luxury goods, from medtech to manufacturing. But in 2026, something more ambitious is happening. Italian Tech Week, which drew over 15 ,000 attendees in Turin in 2025, and was headlined by Jeff Bezos and the EU head Ursula von der Leyen, is rebranding as Wave by Vento. Vento is one of Italy's leading early stage funds. Wave is positioning Italy as a meeting point where Europe's industrial backbone meets global venture capital. And the confirmed speakers already include John Elkin, Joe Tsai, Zanni Minto Bedos of The Economist.

0:50Mike Butcher:Now, the question is, is this going to be just a marketing push for Vento, the VC? And can the conference retain the optics of an independent platform. So today to discuss this we're joined by Dialla Deveni of Vento to unpack what's really going on in Italy's E-Tech ecosystem and whether Wave is more than just a rebrand and will it be able to as I said retain those independent optics. Now thank you so much for joining us. Thank you it's a pleasure to be here with you. So I was looking up some statistics and Italy's tech sector raised 768 million dollars in the first half of 2025. It's already surpassing the country's full year 2020 total.

1:35Mike Butcher:Last year, health tech alone pulled in a lot of cash, 126 million dollars, fintech 91 million dollars, energy tech 78 million. and in theory Italy's tech ecosystems is riding a bit of a wave if you get the pun but what do you think is going on is there a sort of a real you know Italian renaissance going on in tech or how are you positioning yourselves right now? I think of course we are still kind of behind compared to other European ecosystem but we are on the right trajectory and the numbers you just said that validation of that. And that's why we started to invest in this ecosystem in the first place a few years ago, because we were expecting this growth.

2:25And now for the first time, we see some new companies raising series A, series B and doing well in this ecosystem. And I think this is very important because once you have one, two, three companies going very well, then you have investors coming, you have a lot of people understanding that becoming a founder is a good option and trying to build new companies. So it's exactly the kind of flywheel we were hoping for. Of course, as I said, we are at the very beginning of this, but the numbers are positive and we think we are on a good trajectory.

3:03Mike Butcher:Right. And obviously, prior to this, it was called Italian Tech Week and you're rebranding as Wave by Vento, but doesn't that mean that it's going to be difficult for other VCs to participate if it's got a big VC slapped on the title? So one thing that I think wasn't clear is that was always us organizing the event and you've been to the event yourself. As you know, we always have other VCs on stage because Because our objective with the event is to bring the best people to the conversation. So we don't care if it's us or if it's someone else. And to be fair, we don't compete pretty much with anybody because we invest only in early stage Italian founders.

3:48We always go in best. So there's no real competition. So I don't see a reason for another VC to not to come to the conference. What we should be good at is always to have the best founders and the best audience. And that's what we're working on at the moment.

4:06Mike Butcher:And why did you decide to change the name from Italian Tech Week to Wave? When we started, it was 2018. So it was another word completely. And the intent back then was to kind of put Italy on the map and to show that you can have relevant tech conversation also in Italy. But now the name became kind of a ceiling because, as you know, founders and investors are coming from all over Europe and also beyond Europe. So it's not representing anymore what we're trying to build here. And the idea that we want to spread is that we are building together something that goes beyond Italy and possibly beyond Europe.

4:51So we need a name that can represent that idea and that intention.

4:57Mike Butcher:So do you plan to take it to other cities or keep it in Turin? No, we want to keep it in Turin. We are here and we are building from here every day. We have strong roots in the city, so we are not planning to move the event. We just want to give to the event a name that represents better the environment that you can find here when you come for the conference. Right. And there's obviously been some, you know, an increase in the amount of activity in Italian tech ecosystems. A lot of people talking about bending spoons and how they're acquiring older internet brands and like Evernote and refreshing them.

5:43Mike Butcher:Obviously, you had some previous Italian success stories such as Scala Pay, Depop, Satis Pay and others. So do we think, though, that, in your opinion, a lot of those companies tend to be done by Italian founders so often outside Italy? So how do you feel that you're going to be able to retain talent and retain companies in Italy going forward? Actually, the companies you mentioned are all still based in Italy, meaning Bending Spoon, Satispe, Scalape. So I think they already are good example. But I agree that many Italian founders outside of Italy in our portfolio, for instance, 50 percent of the companies are Italians outside of Italy.

6:32So for sure, we have a brain brain problem. But what is good is that even those Italians that are not in Italy anymore are supporting the ecosystem, are coming back to help other founders. When they are growing, they are opening new legal entities in the country, hiring people, creating new jobs. So I think that's still good for our final goal, that is to try and support the Italian ecosystem. and we know that many Italians are not in Italy but they are still part of this community.

7:11Mike Butcher:Obviously, also the government changed a few years ago with Georgia Maloney. Do you think that she has been able to attract entrepreneurs back to the country? I think it's too soon to say but for sure also the government is more aware of the importance of this ecosystem. For sure, there are things that we could do better, but I think we are going in the right direction and also on the European level. I think there are very good signals. As you know, last year also the president of the European Commission was on stage and she said very important things. Of course, now we need to see if there will be actions.

7:58but for sure we are on a good trajectory also on that side I think.

8:04Mike Butcher:Right and also Italy's got a very strong manufacturing base. In fact Italy is the EU's second largest manufacturing base. It's got dense industrial districts, a lot of engineering depth. Do you think that that's going to be a particular advantage as AI starts to touch manufacturing, robotics, etc? I think so, yeah. There's a new generation of companies that is building for the manufacturing industry and I think this is really interesting because it's a market that is largely untapped by startups and innovation in general so there's a huge opportunity. Of course it's also kind of difficult because you don't have a playbook for that you have to discover how to sell to those companies uh what can work what could not so it's not an easy challenge but i think it's very important and i'm expecting to see uh the next bending spoons or scalope or satis pay coming from startup selling to that specific segment and obviously italian tech week has been going for a while and now obviously rebranding as wave Did you notice that you could attract visiting companies, visiting speakers to Turin or to other parts of Italy as a result of the conference?

9:31I have to be honest on this. At the beginning, it was really all about the network. So as you may know, we're backed by Exor, the investment company of Daniele Stanley. And they have an incredible network, in particular, John Alcone. So the main speakers were coming thanks to him. And at the beginning, they were saying, what are you doing in Italy? A tech conference? Is it a wine conference, maybe, or a food conference? So at the beginning, it was very, very hard. But now, after a few years, they have witnessed the growth of this conference and the people we are able to have every year are incredible.

10:15So they're not coming anymore just because we are inviting them or Exor is inviting them. They are coming because they know once they are here, they can find very interesting people. and also I think the country is becoming more interesting for investors coming also from outside of Italy. There have been a few rounds this year that were led by US and European funds. So I guess now they know there's an opportunity and they don't want to miss it.

10:46Mike Butcher:And there's also been an initiative called the 28th Regime, which was pushed by the lobbying group EU Inc. and that was announced in Davos by Ursula von der Leyen. Do you think that that kind of corporate structure would assist Italian startups? Yeah, I think that would be very important because, you know, opening a company in Italy is still kind of cumbersome, but more than that, when they want to expand to a new country in Europe, there's a lot of things they have to do. And I think this is one of the main drawbacks of building a company in Europe. Every country is kind of a different world.

11:30So we need to have a better legislation and a better way to operate throughout Europe and not only in your initial market. So I think that is really important and really support those kind of initiatives. Great.

11:49Mike Butcher:Well, thank you very much for that update from Wave by Vento, the new conference which is replacing Italian Tech Week and from the investor Vento. And so thank you so much, Dialla Deveni, who is from Wave. And I appreciate your time today.