European Venture Capital – a series of blog posts

The European venture scene is bigger than many Americans realize. Each year European companies close between 1,000 and 1,700 venture financings, compared to a steady 2,500 venture financings in the U.S. Today it is typical to meet a 29-year-old European closing his first funding, who is already on his third startup. His previous two startups may have been only angel backed, but the entrepreneurial experience that happened in Europe over the past fifteen years has changed the landscape. Europeans basically joined the entrepreneurship game in the year 2000, just moments before the dot com melt down. Fourteen years later, experienced teams work with experienced VCs.

It is time for Europeans to adopt the “move it forward” culture of the Valley. Europeans must help each other more and connect to each other, Americans, Chinese and Indians the way Israelis already do. They need to take time to meet each other and give each other honest and direct feedback rather than politely nod when they believe the other entrepreneur’s strategy is flawed. More info at www.evca.eu.

The British Scene

I lived in London for nearly 10 years, spending so much time there that it is hard for me to pick my favorite VCs. I have relationships with pretty much all of them, and I have grown to know which partner at each fund is an appropriate fit for what. Let me name a few VCs that I like. For IT, ProFounders Capital, established by Sean Steton-Rogers, is particularly interesting. At a time when other VCs in London were reacting to the 2007-08 recession, this guy left his job as an associate at Balderton (formerly Benchmark Europe) and set up a very small early stage venture fund backed by a great advisory board. Other top funds for IT in the UK include Atomico (Skype founders’ fund), Index Ventures, Accel, Balderton, DFJ-Esprit, Forward Ventures (where Nic Brisbource from DFJ-Esprit has moved to) Amadeus Capital, Eden Ventures and TLcom to name a few. Apologies to friends that are not mentioned here. There are about 50 of you.

These investors appeared on a VentureSource search for the most active VCs in the UK that have made an investment into a UK domiciled operating company that had raised at least $3m USD in 2010 or 2011. Not all of these funds are based in the UK. As with all searches, some of these are Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), government tax incentive schemes that raise most of their LP dollars from retail investors that are happy with the tax break and a 1x return. In general, the VCTs are rather weak, but if you are seeking to raise funding, and you are in the UK, there is no harm in getting a term sheet from them. More info at www.bvca.co.uk.

I did not intend to list more than 50 VCs, but some of my favorite VCs did not make the top 50 and I wanted give them some visibility. For many British VCs, 2010-11 was still a time to circle the wagons and get through the recession with their existing portfolios intact.

This series of blog posts will cover each major market in Europe where I have experience and will provide similar league tables.

League Table for Most Active VCs in the UK

These league tables like the other ones I have posted are a bit out of date. These represent research for VCs that invested in British domiciled startups in rounds of at least $5m in 2009 and 2010.


1	Octopus Ventures Ltd.	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 459	15
2	Scottish Enterprise	Glasgow, United Kingdom		US$ 212	11
3	Accel Partners	Palo Alto, CA	Venture Capital	US$ 6,000	10
4	NESTA	London, United Kingdom	Government		9
5	Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd.	Cambridge, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 844	8
6	Carbon Trust Investments Ltd.	London, United Kingdom	Corporate Venture Capital	US$ 36	8
7	DFJ Esprit LLP	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 565	8
8	Imperial Innovations	London, United Kingdom		US$ 98	8
9	Index Ventures	Geneva, Switzerland	Venture Capital	US$ 2,250	8
10	Oxford Capital Partners Ltd.	Oxford, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 71	8
11	Scottish Equity Partners LLP	Glasgow, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 477	7
12	Advent Venture Partners LLP	London, United Kingdom		US$ 882	6
13	Balderton Capital Management LLP	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 1,900	6
14	Eden Ventures	Bath, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 300	6
15	SV Life Sciences Advisers LLC	Boston, MA		US$ 2,062	6
16	Atlas Venture	Cambridge, MA	Venture Capital	US$ 1,973	5
17	Greylock Partners	Menlo Park, CA	Venture Capital	US$ 2,770	5
18	Invesco Perpetual	Henley-on-Thames , United Kingdom			5
19	YFM Private Equity Ltd.	Leeds, United Kingdom		US$ 888	5
20	Albion Ventures LLP	London, United Kingdom		US$ 441	4
21	Beringea LLC	Farmington Hills, MI	Venture Capital	US$ 400	4
22	Bridges Ventures Limited	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 203	4
23	Energy Ventures AS	Stavanger, Norway	Venture Capital	US$ 346	4
24	Forbion Capital Partners	Naarden, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 240	4
25	Hotbed Ltd.	London, United Kingdom			4
26	Intel Capital	Santa Clara, CA	Corporate Venture Capital	US$ 1,449	4
27	Morningside Group Ltd.	Newton Center, MA			4
28	Novo A/S	Hellerup, Denmark		US$ 2,044	4
29	Oxford Technology Management Ltd.	Oxford, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 94	4
30	Pentech Ventures	Glasgow, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 119	4
31	Seraphim Capital	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 53	4
32	Spark Ventures	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 309	4
33	Augmentum Capital LLP	London, United Kingdom			3
34	Catapult Venture Managers	Nottingham, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 141	3
35	Dawn Capital LLP	London, United Kingdom		US$ 53	3
36	Enterprise Ventures Ltd.	Preston, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 125	3
37	Finance Wales	Cardiff , United Kingdom		US$ 265	3
38	IP Group	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital		3
39	MVM Life Science Partners LLP	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 489	3
40	Nauta Capital	Barcelona, Spain	Venture Capital	US$ 138	3
41	Notion Capital	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital		3
42	Quest For Growth NV	Leuven, Belgium	Inactive VC	US$ 132	3
43	Seroba Kernel Life Sciences	Dublin, Ireland	Venture Capital	US$ 114	3
44	Silicon Valley Bank	Santa Clara, CA	Other	US$ 4,000	3
45	Sofinnova Partners	Paris, France		US$ 1,328	3
46	SSE PLC	Perth, United Kingdom	Corporate Venture Capital		3
47	Archangel Informal Investment Ltd.	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	Angel Investor		2
48	Atomico	London, United Kingdom	Venture Capital		2
49	Braveheart Ventures	Perth, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 26	2
50	Business Growth Fund PLC	Birmingham, United Kingdom			2