An interview with Giancarlo Rocchietti, Founder and President of Club degli Investitori (Torino, Italy), member of the Business Angels Europe Club.
What? Club degli Investitori is one of the main business angel networks in Italy and it’s based in Turin.
Who? More than 180 angels with almost 20 millions invested in more than 30 companies.
Since When? First started in 2010.
Hi Giancarlo, so how did you start angel investing?
I am an engineer and entrepreneur, I worked from a young age to build my company Euphon, which I led for twenty years before listing the company in the year 2000 on the Italian stock exchange. After that, I completely my exit selling the company to a private equity fund in 2005.
At first instance I started to invest into the renewable energy sector, which was growing in the years around 2008 thanks to government contributions. However, I felt the renewable sector was not as exciting as the industry I built my own company in, which is media.
At that point I decided I wanted to support new entrepreneurs and to become a business angel investor together with two other friends, working closely with the Politecnico di Torino, my former University.