Equinvest

Established in 2014 by Fabio Bancalà and Dario Giudice, Equinvest emerged as a Rome-based financial services firm with a distinctive approach to venture capital. The company launched its primary service, an equity crowdfunding platform, after receiving authorization from the Italian regulator CONSOB in January 2015. Equinvest's model was designed to bridge the gap between traditional venture capital and crowdfunding, allowing both retail and professional investors to co-invest in high-potential Italian startups. A key milestone was a seed funding round in October 2015, which raised €150,000 to expand operations.

Equinvest operated on a unique, hybrid business model. It managed deal flow through its online platform, equinvest.it, but functioned like a traditional investor. Instead of investing directly into startups, investors would acquire shares in a special purpose vehicle created by Equinvest for each investment opportunity. This fund would then take a stake in the target startup, manage shareholder relations, and appoint members to the company's board, allowing the entrepreneurs to focus on their core business. This structure provided a layer of professional oversight and management typically absent in standard crowdfunding models, making it a pioneer in what was described as venture capital crowdfunding. The firm was sector-agnostic, focusing its selection process on the team's capabilities, the project's innovation capacity, and market scalability.

In a significant strategic move at the end of 2017, Equinvest announced its merger with BackToWork24, a company then controlled by the Il Sole 24 Ore group that specialized in connecting companies with manager-investors. The fusion, completed in early 2018, created a new entity, also named BackToWork24, which integrated club deals with equity crowdfunding. Following the merger, the original Equinvest entity was effectively absorbed, and its platform became part of a larger hub for alternative finance. Data indicates that prior to the merger, Equinvest had successfully closed 7 funding campaigns, raising a total of €1.36 million. Information from 2025 lists the company as deadpooled, reflecting its absorption into the new, combined entity.

Keywords: equity crowdfunding, venture capital, Italian startups, investment platform, startup financing, fintech, Rome, financial services, crowdfunding portal, alternative finance, CONSOB, seed funding, club deal, co-investment, startup ecosystem, investor network, high-growth companies, private equity, capital raising, innovative startups, Fabio Bancalà