European venture capital investment held steady in 2004.
‘The UK venture capital market showed signs of recovery by the end of 2004. Investors are working hard to pick real winners, particularly in the biopharma and other healthcare sectors. As a result we are seeing early stage investment showing strong growth and value per deal increasing as well. The froth has been blown off the market and quality not quantity is showing through,’ Watson said.
Positive signals were also set by the early stage deals in 2004. Early stage rounds represented one-third of all deals in Europe in 2004 – compared to 28 per cent in 2003. The amount invested in seed and first rounds increased by 42 per cent over 2003 amounts.
These figures are exactly what we have seen at London Business Angels and London Seed Capital. We, and the business angels in our network, are being much more selective in our investments – investing higher sums of money in fewer companies.
Jason Ball 