From a Community to a Fund
The story
behind it all
For years, talking about startups in Italy felt a bit like telling the same story over and over again. Plenty of talent. Not enough capital. Ambition that often had to leave the country to find oxygen.
After the dot-com bubble, venture capital slowed down, then almost disappeared. Startups still existed, but scaling them was hard. The ecosystem produced few outliers, not momentum. If you wanted to build something truly global, the default advice was simple: "move". "You can't do it from Italy".
And yet, something interesting happens when a story is repeated for long enough... People eventually get tired of it.
SOMETHING STARTED TO CHANGE AROUND 2018
Around 2018, Italy started to change. Not loudly, not all at once, but consistently. A new wave of companies emerged, some built in Italy, others built abroad by Italian founders who hadn't cut their ties. Capital started flowing again. International funds began showing up on cap tables.
Still, the real shift wasn't visible in pitch decks or press releases. It was happening in WhatsApp groups, at late dinners, on weekend trips that somehow turned into informal board meetings. Founders started talking to each other. Really talking.
THEY STARTED INVESTING IN EACH OTHER
By 2022, it was no longer unusual to see seed rounds made up almost entirely of founders. No big institutions. No elaborate processes. Just experienced entrepreneurs backing other entrepreneurs early, often before anything looked "institutional-grade".
Many of them were second-time founders. They had scars. They had pattern recognition. This didn't happen because someone designed it. It happened because the ecosystem was finally mature enough to support it.
IF THIS TRUST WAS REAL, IT DESERVED A VEHICLE
At a certain point, the need became obvious. If this energy was real, it deserved structure. Not to slow it down. Not to institutionalize it into irrelevance. But to amplify it.
The idea was simple: create a vehicle that could channel this founder-to-founder momentum, while adding the discipline, governance and international standards of venture capital. A Founders Fund — built by founders, for founders.
KOINOS, LORENZO, AND THE MOMENT EVERYTHING ALIGNED
That's when Koinos Capital SGR entered the story. Some founders in the community had already backed Lorenzo Franzi in previous ventures. He had been an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and later an investor at Global Founders Capital. He was ready to return with a clear ambition: bring that mindset back home. Not as nostalgia. As strategy.
A founder community that already trusted each other. An institutional platform built for the long term. An investment team grounded in global experience.
