Strong Start for Italy’s Equity Crowdfunding in 2025, with €18.5 Million Raised in Q1

2025 has opened with positive signs for the European equity crowdfunding market, in particular as a financing channel for Italian startups and SMEs. A trend that is confirmed in the first updates of the European Equity Crowdfunding Landscape (EECL), the pan-European report created by Over Ventures with the aim of mapping the evolution, volumes and dynamics of the platforms authorized under the European ECSP Regulation.

The EECL aims to be a point of reference for understanding in an increasingly in-depth manner the role of crowdfunding in the European innovation system and its progressive approach to venture capital models.

Equity crowdfunding 2025, a promising start

Compared to the data collected in 2024, the first quarter of 2025 shows encouraging signs.

Last year, in Italy, the equity crowdfunding market for startups and SMEs – excluding real estate, green projects, lending and minibonds – recorded a total collection of just over 53 million euros through 91 successful campaigns, involving over 9,100 investors. The average size of the rounds was around 583 thousand euros.

In the first quarter of 2025, 30 public equity crowdfundings campaigns were successfully concluded, for a total collection of approximately 18.5 million euros from over 2,000 investors. The average collection per campaign reached 630 thousand euros, with an increase of +8% compared to the 2024 average. If compared with the entire previous year, these data represent a positive projection: in the first three months alone, approximately 35% of the 2024 total was already collected, while the number of investors activated in Q1 corresponds to more than 22% of those involved in the whole of last year.

Although Q2 and Q3 have always been a more cautious phase for online fundraising – due to seasonality and macroeconomic uncertainty – 2025 looks set to be an interesting year, especially for the growing quality of campaigns, the progressive internationalization and the expansion of the audience of professional and semi-professional investors who are approaching crowdfunding as a strategic asset class.

Equity crowdfunding in Italy, a Spanish portal in third place

In the first quarter of 2025, eight platforms – five Italian and three international enabled in Italy with ECSP passporting – raised a total of 18.5 million euros for Italian companies, considering only public campaigns. The equity crowdfunding platforms analyzed exclude entities that operate exclusively on closed deal clubs (such as Doorway or ClubDealOnline), allowing for a reading that is more in line with the logic of the open market and close to venture capital.

Mamacrowd confirms itself as the leading portal, with over 10 million euros raised, followed by CrowdFundMe with around 5 million. In third place, surprisingly, we find Capital Cell – an international platform based in Barcelona specializing in biotech and medtech – which raised over 1.1 million euros for the Italian startup MG Shell. Following: Opstart (around 1 million), Crowdcube (700 thousand euros), WeAreStarting (270 thousand euros), StarsUp (133 thousand euros) and EvenFi (99 thousand euros).

The sectors with the best campaigns

The best performing sector was Food & Agriculture, with approximately 3.9 million raised, followed by Lifestyle (3.5 million) and Tech, which almost reached these figures. The equity crowdfunding campaigns that attracted the most capital were: Ciocomiti (2.4 million on Mamacrowd), Timeflow (2.3 million on Mamacrowd), Ywedo Milano (1.6 million on CrowdFundMe), Collecto (1.4 million always on CrowdFundMe) and Cyber ​​Evolution (over 1.3 million on Mamacrowd).

Worthy of note is the path of Sealence, an Italian deeptech scaleup, which started the round in Italy on CrowdFundMe, raising 350,000 euros and then continued with a second tranche on Crowdcube, reaching a total of about 700,000 euros. An emblematic case that shows how the new European ECSP regulation is favoring greater synergy between national and international platforms, opening up cross-border funding opportunities in an increasingly European and scalable perspective.

Equity Crowdfunding in Europe: France remains the leader

In the first quarter of 2025, the European equity crowdfunding market exceeded €100 million raised, spread across over 110 campaigns.

France confirms its leading position with more than 30 million raised in 28 operations, followed by Italy (18.5 million in 30 campaigns) and the Netherlands, which closes the podium with approximately 13 million raised in 8 campaigns. Spain has exceeded 11 million in 14 campaigns, while Ireland closes the top 5 with approximately 7 million raised in 7 equity crowdfunding campaigns.

The platforms

In terms of platforms, the French Tudigo leads the market with over 13 million raised in 9 campaigns, followed by Crowdcube (12.4 million in 14 campaigns) and Mamacrowd (over 10 million in 10 campaigns). The top 5 is closed by SoWeFund (9.2 million in 5 campaigns) and Capital Cell (8.7 million in 8 campaigns).

The sectors

Among the most active sectors, Life Sciences stands out with 24.7 million raised in 19 campaigns, followed closely by Food & Agriculture (24.2 million in 24 campaigns) and Tech with 15.8 million raised in 16 campaigns. The European average per campaign is around 915 thousand euros, in line with the increase in the quality of the projects presented and the trust of investors.

The campaigns

Among the best-performing campaigns are Wandercraft on Tudigo, which raised $4.6 million from 971 investors, followed by Mosa Meat ($3.7 million from 1,644 investors on Crowdcube) and Kipster ($3.7 million from 1,373 investors on Invesdor).

Comparison with 2024

Compared to 2024 data, Q1 2025 shows signs of acceleration. In the whole of 2024, according to EECL, the European market had recorded 318 successfully closed operations, raising approximately 250 million from over 70,000 investors, with an average collection of 774 thousand euros per campaign.

Projecting the first quarter data to the entire year, 2025 could close with over 400 million euros raised and more than 140,000 active investors, with an average growth of +18% compared to the previous year. The confirmation of Life Sciences as the dominant sector highlights a continuity in the focus of investors, while the growth of Food & Agriculture and Tech signals a gradual diversification and maturation of the European market.

Trends: convergences, community funding and new digital frontiers

It is interesting to note how, both in Europe and – more timidly – ​​in Italy, equity crowdfunding operations are gaining ground in completion of rounds led by VCs or angel syndicates.

This is a sign that even professional and institutional investors are starting to grasp the potential of the instrument, not only as a collection vehicle, but as a strategic asset to validate, accelerate and communicate operations of early-stage startups, tech companies and fast-growing companies.

In this context, two main models can be distinguished: on the one hand, community funding operations, in which advanced-stage startups monetize the loyalty of their user base, involving customers and users in the cap table; on the other, venture capital democratization models, which allow small investors to access selected deals, often shared with professional operators.

It is with this in mind that some platforms – already authorized as ECSPs – are adopting a club deal structure, with registration fees, exclusive dealflow and logics more similar to the world of angel investing.

At a technological level, we are witnessing a significant evolution of the platform infrastructure: from the tokenization of shares to the enhancement of post-campaign services, up to the adoption of the Platform-as-a-Service model. Some RegTech providers are in fact offering white label platforms to accelerators, VCs and family offices, making online fundraising a strategic channel that can be integrated into complex operations.

Finally, the German market remains to be monitored, historically among the most active in Europe but today still outside the ECSP perimeter with regard to the two main platforms – Seedmatch and Companisto – which operate under the national regulatory regime. At the same time, international players such as Crowdcube, Republic, Invesdor, SeedBlink and Capital Cell have already set foot in Germany, and it will be interesting to observe the regulatory evolution in the coming months. Further harmonization of the rules between member countries could represent a decisive boost for the development of the European crowdfunding market.

What to expect in Q2 and beyond

Looking ahead to Q2 2025 and beyond, we can expect continued growth, albeit more moderate than Q1, with an increase in cross-border campaigns and the entry of smaller but highly vertical platforms into niche sectors.

Another evolving trend is represented by operations promoted directly by club deals and syndicates of business angels, which use platforms as a vehicle to raise capital in a more structured and visible way.

At the same time, there is a greater openness of professional operators to crowdfunding as a complementary tool, especially in the seed and pre-series A phases, both to validate market interest and to strengthen traction metrics before an institutional round. This dynamic could help consolidate the role of the crowd as the first step in the capitalization process of European startups.

Furthermore, it will be interesting to monitor how the adoption of new technologies by equity crowdfunding platforms will evolve, in particular those related to post-investment management, the digitalization of governance processes and tokenization, increasingly central themes in the dialogue between equity crowdfunding, venture capital and regulatory innovation.

The second quarter, with system events such as VivaTech, TNW and Sifted Summit, could offer new ideas for development and encourage further contamination between European operators, accelerating the integration between fundraising models and tools in an increasingly global perspective.

These events – and others scheduled for the coming months – will seek to bring crowdfunding back to the center of the conversation on financial innovation, showing founders and investors how this technology can represent a strategic and concrete support within modern fundraising processes, both in Europe and globally.

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First published in EconomyUp. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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