Italy
ESIL Angel: Paolo Anselmo
Bio at a glance
Paolo Anselmo is President of the IBAN association – Italian Business Angels Network – an organisation that he has been involved with for the last 19 years. Paolo has more than 20 years of experience-based knowledge in regional policy development, innovation strategies and measures and access to finance which he gained through participating in several assignments at international level as senior consultant and project director.
Works at
IBAN – the Italian Business Angels Network
Since 1999, IBAN, a non-profit making Association under the Italian law (legally recognized by the Italian government), has the aim to introduce in Italy the Business Angels (BA) experience and to develop a national platform of BAN’s - Business Angels Networks.
IBAN's members are territorial BAN’s, investors clubs, business angels and professionals in matching investors (formal and informal) with entrepreneurs, authorities and institutions. Also individual business angels are engaged in IBAN activities.
Early stage investing in Italy today:
- In 2013, Italy was one of the first countries at EU level that set up rules for the online crowdfunding platforms.
- However Italy’s performance in overall business environment is well below the EU average.??
- The most problematic factors for doing business are cited as inefficient government bureaucracy, tax rates (17.3), and restrictive labor regulations.
- Italy scores well in relation to ESIL peers in terms of attitudes to Entrepreneurship. 64% of 18-64 population agree that that in their country, most people consider starting a business as a desirable career choice, and 73 agree that successful entrepreneurs receive a high status.
My goals in Italy
- Build more capacity for deals and follow-on investment.
- Further improve the percentage of women business Angels
- Improve cross-border connections in order to assist companies with their international expansion
