Alberto Maria Genovese
Alberto Maria Genovese is a former Italian entrepreneur, known as the ‘king of start-ups’ for his initiatives in the sector and known for being convicted for sexual assault.
He is the founder of Facile.it and Prima Assicurazioni.
Early life
After he graduated in Business administration from the Bocconi University he pursued a Master's in Business Administration at INSEAD in Fontainebleau and at Harvard Business School in Boston.Career
In 1999 Genovese was hired by Goldman Sachs, later moving to McKinsey & Company and then Bain & Company. From 2005 to 2009, he worked for eBay as the head of the Motors and New Businesses division.Entrepreneurial activities
In 2008, following his time at eBay, Genovese founded Facile.it, a comparison website for insurance and financial products, and becomes its chairman and chief executive officer.Under his leadership, Facile.it reaches 350 employees and closes an investment round with Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi Berlusconi, through Holding Italiana Quattordicesima S.r.l.
In 2010, he launched Seguros.es, the Spanish version of the online insurance comparison site, which was then sold to the Rastreator group in 2014.
The company was sold to Oakley Capital in 2014 for more than 100 millions with Mauro Giacobbe taking over as CEO shortly after.
In the same year, Alberto Genovese founded Prima Assicurazioni, a tech company operating as an insurance agency, and became its chairman and CEO. In the summer of 2018, Prima Assicurazioni closed the largest venture capital financing round in Italy: a €100 million increase, with Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group as subscribers. At the end of 2020, when Alberto Genovese stepped down from his positions, Prima had 1.1 million customers, nearly €290 million in premiums, more than 5,000 customers assisted each month by the claims service, and a team of 339 professionals with an average age of 31.
In 2015, he founded brumbrum, an online used car retailer in Italy, closing a £10 million investment round from United Ventures and selling it to a partner in 2019. The company was then sold to Cazoo in 2022 for €80 million.
Around the same time, he held stakes and served as president in various startups such as Abiby, Zappyrent, Jobtech and Mirta.com.
In 2022 Genovese sold his 25% stake in Prima Assicurazioni for €200 million, bringing the unicorn's valuation closer to €1 billion.
In 2025, the year in which the company was sold to AXA, Genovese received an earn-out of €89.7 million as a result of the variable share agreed upon at the time of the sale.
Rape trials and conviction
In October 2020, Genovese was arrested on charges of transfer of drugs without consideration and sexually assaulting a girl at a party in his home, one of many drug-fueled parties held at Terrazza Sentimento.In July 2021, Genovese leaves San Vittore prison to undergo drug rehabilitation at the Crest community in Cuveglio.
The trial ended with a sentence of five years and four months for drug dealing and one year and seven months for the two counts of abuse. In February 2023, Genovese returned to prison, this time in Bollate, to serve the remainder of his sentence.
In July 2024, a second trial concluded, Alberto Genovese was acquitted of charges involving a young girl but was convicted of attempted violence and other offenses, receiving a 15-month sentence.
Since August 2024 he has been under Article 21 and works as a volunteer outside Bollate prison, where he returns to spend the night.
Volunteering
In 2022, with judicial approval, Genovese and his sister Laura established the Franco Latanza Foundation, the foundation offers free support to families living with a loved one's drug addiction, providing a listening ear, online psychological counselling, guidance and support towards treatment programmes.In 2023, the organisation was renamed Fondazione Laura e Alberto Genovese, maintaining its original commitment.
In August 2024, the Milan Supervisory Court granted Genovese permission to perform volunteer work outside the detention facility.