The Benelux Scene – league tables of most active Benelux VCs – part of my European VC blog series

Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux) have a steady flow of strong entrepreneurs and a few good VCs. Some of the biggest operating in the region includes GIMV, a large fund with Karl Naegler, one of their general partners a former colleague of mine sitting on the advisory board of The Founders Club. More recently Amsterdam was the birthplace of Startupbootcamp, which has quickly become the largest accelerator across Europe with locations sprouting up everywhere. We are organizing an event at their London location June 13. I have personally been to the Netherlands over 50 times on business and Belgium a number of times. I do find the Dutch challenging to negotiate with and a wise and successful enterprise salesman once told me his strategy to sell to the Dutch. He suggested that you just show them your costs and ask them what they are willing to pay so that you have some kind of margin to stay in business. Once you have made them want your product that’s the way to close them quickly and not get into a competitive auction and price / feature comparison that will go on for ages. He was talking about a big sale to KPN, their incumbent telecom operator. I dealt with all the telecom operators in the region and would agree with this assessment. Also good for the quick win and grow through Europe with KPN as a reference customer. The other thing I learned when running The Founders Club is that a lot of French and German entrepreneurs (mainly French) become Belgium residents or make sure that the holding company that owns the shares in the company they founded is domiciled in Belgium. In order to qualify as a Belgium resident they need to live there for 6 months and a day and that can be done by renting an apartment. I did notice French entrepreneurs “moving to Belgium” prior to their exits.

Compared to the primary European markets Benelux has smaller populations: Belgium at 11.4m, Netherlands at 16.8m, and Luxembourg at 531k. Interestingly, many European VCs are headquartered in Luxembourg for tax reasons. I think the guys from Mangrove actually do live there; they did well with their investment in Skype.

You will find below the League Table for Most Active VCs in Belgium. VentureSource results for a minimum of $3m in Belgium in 2010 to 2011. I prepared this information to go into my book and we decided to cut Europe from the book a while ago as the book was way too long. So this information is very, very outdated. More info at www.bvassociation.org

If you want to come to Europe this summer there is no better place to be in June than Stockholm and London. Join us!

Stockholm – The Future of Raising Angel & Venture Capital Funding – June 3

http://stockholmvcbible.eventbrite.com

Stockholm – The Future of Angel & Venture Capital Investing – June 4

http://futurevcstockholm.eventbrite.com

London – The Future of Angel & Venture Capital Investing – June 9

http://futureVC.eventbrite.com

London – The Future of Raising Angel & Venture Capital Funding – June 11

http://londonvcbible.eventbrite.com

League Table for Most Active VCs in Belgium

1	Gimv NV	Antwerp, Belgium	Column1	US$ 2,116	4
2	LRM	Hasselt, Belgium	Government	US$ 601	4
3	Capricorn Venture Partners NV	Leuven, Belgium	Venture Capital	US$ 135	3
4	Credit Agricole Private Equity	Paris, France		US$ 4,456	2
5	Hummingbird Ventures	Antwerp, Belgium	Venture Capital	US$ 49	2
6	Vesalius BioCapital Partners Sarl	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Venture Capital		2
7	BAMS Angels Fund	Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium	Inactive VC		1
8	Belgacom SA	Brussels, Belgium			1
9	European Commission Grant	Sweden	Government		1
10	Forbion Capital Partners	Naarden, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 240	1
11	Hunza Management SARL	Luxemburg, Luxembourg	Venture Capital		1
12	Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.	New Brunswick, NJ	Corp Development		1
13	KBC Private Equity	Brussels, Belgium		US$ 541	1
14	Life Sciences Partners BV	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 601	1
15	MP Healthcare Venture Management	Boston, MA	Venture Capital		1
16	Partech International	San Francisco, CA	Venture Capital	US$ 800	1
17	PMV	Brussels, Belgium			1
18	Robert Bosch Venture Capital	Stuttgart, Germany	Corporate Venture Capital		1
19	Societe Regionale d’Investissement de Wa	Liege, Belgium	Venture Capital	US$ 1,120	1
20	Sofinnova Partners	Paris, France		US$ 1,328	1
21	VIB	Gent, Belgium			1

Netherlands has a few impressive VCs on the life sciences front, such as Forbion, Gilde Healthcare Partners and Life Science Partners BV. GIMV is very much at home in NL. I also like the guys from Van den Ende & Deitmers, the investment firm of Endemol (they once traveled up to Stockholm for one of my events there in June of 2009). Prime Technology Ventures is good for IT and has a strong position in the market. The Netherlands is a decent location to launch a tech startup as the country is relatively inexpensive, centrally located with a charming standard of living. A bit of angel funding can go a long way.

You will find below the League Table for Most Active VCs in the Netherlands. Same search as always, at least $3m invested in the Netherlands in 2010 – 2011. I prepared this information to go into my book and we decided to cut Europe from the book a while ago as the book was way too long. So this information is very, very outdated. More info at www.nvp.nl.

League Table for Most Active VCs in the Netherlands

1	Aescap Venture	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 125	3
2	Erasmus MC Biomedical Fund	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Venture Capital		3
3	Life Sciences Partners BV	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 601	3
4	BioGeneration Ventures	Naarden, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 24	2
5	Credit Agricole Private Equity	Paris, France		US$ 4,456	2
6	De Hoge Dennen Capital PE BV	Laren, Netherlands			2
7	Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs	The Hague, Netherlands	Government		2
8	Forbion Capital Partners	Naarden, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 240	2
9	Gimv NV	Antwerp, Belgium		US$ 2,116	2
10	Prime Technology Ventures N.V.	Amstelveen, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 361	2
11	Prime Ventures	Santa Monica, CA	Other		2
12	3TS Capital Partners	Prague, Czech Republic		US$ 272	1
13	Abbott Laboratories	Abbott Park, IL	Corp Development		1
14	Accel Partners	Palo Alto, CA	Venture Capital	US$ 6,000	1
15	Aglaia Biomedical Ventures	Netherlands	Venture Capital		1
16	Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd.	Cambridge, United Kingdom	Venture Capital	US$ 844	1
17	Antea Participaties	The Hague, Netherlands		US$ 19	1
18	Applied Ventures	Santa Clara, CA	Corporate Venture Capital	US$ 50	1
19	Aster Capital SAS	Paris, France	Venture Capital	US$ 163	1
20	Baekeland Fonds	Gent , Belgium	Venture Capital		1
21	Bank Leumi Israel B.M.	Tel Aviv, Israel	Venture Capital	US$ 14	1
22	Bay City Capital	San Francisco, CA	Venture Capital	US$ 1,550	1
23	BB Biotech Ventures	Schaffhausen, Switzerland	Venture Capital	US$ 396	1
24	Biox Biosciences	Netherlands	Corporation		1
25	Capricorn Venture Partners NV	Leuven, Belgium	Venture Capital	US$ 135	1
26	Fairbanks Investment Fund	*, WA			1
27	Gemma Frisius Fund	Leuven, Belgium	Venture Capital	US$ 22	1
28	Gilde Healthcare Partners	Utrecht, Netherlands	Venture Capital	US$ 361	1
29	Goldman Sachs Group Inc.	New York, NY	Investment Bank	US$ 3,750	1
30	Idinvest Partners	Paris, France	Venture Capital	US$ 3,366	1
31	ING Capital	New York, NY	Investment Bank		1
32	Intel Capital	Santa Clara, CA	Corporate Venture Capital	US$ 1,449	1
33	Inventages Venture Capital	Commugny, Switzerland	Venture Capital	US$ 1,200	1
34	Lupus Ventures	Netherlands	Venture Capital		1
35	Navitas Capital	Berkeley, CA	Venture Capital		1
36	NoorderHuys Participaties	Joure, Netherlands			1
37	Novartis Venture Fund	Basel, Switzerland	Corporate Venture Capital	US$ 650	1
38	OrbiMed Advisors LLC	New York, NY	Venture Capital	US$ 6,000	1
39	Paul Capital Partners	San Francisco, CA			1
40	Pentair Inc.	Minneapolis, MN	Corporation		1
41	Pfizer Inc.	New York, NY	Corp Development		1
42	PPM Oost	Arnhem, Netherlands	Government	US$ 64	1
43	Private Plus Fund	Nijehaske, Netherlands	Venture Capital		1
44	Rabo Ventures	Netherlands	Venture Capital		1
45	Sanders Morris Harris	Houston, TX	Investment Bank	US$ 300	1
46	SET Venture Partners	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Venture Capital		1
47	Seventure Partners SA	Paris, France	Venture Capital	US$ 601	1
48	Shire		Corporation		1
49	Signet Healthcare Partners	New York, NY			1
50	Sofinnova Partners	Paris, France		US$ 1,328	1