Andrea Pignataro (born 1970 in Bologna) is an Italian entrepreneur and mathematician based in Switzerland. He founded the ION Group, a company that develops software for the financial sector. According to Forbes, he was the second-richest Italian in November 2025, with a personal net worth of US$36.5 billion. He has also invested heavily in IT services, data collection and other companies in Italy and beyond.
Career and ION Group
Pignataro graduated in economics from the University of Bologna and later earned a PhD in mathematics from Imperial College London. He started as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers in 1994. In 1997 he set up ION Investment Group in London as a joint venture between Salomon and List, a Pisa-based software firm specializing in government bond trading. He left Salomon in 1999 to run ION as an independent company, which became one of the leading trading software providers in the financial sector.
Investments and legal issues
In 2021 Pignataro invested over three billion euros in Cedacri and Cerved, firms providing IT services to banks and company financial data. His holding company later gained control of Prelios and took it over in July 2024. In 2025 he was investigated by the Italian revenue agency over alleged tax evasion of 500 million euros between 2013 and 2023, and he reached a settlement to pay 280 million euros in five installments.