nowEurope

EBAN in co-operation with LBAN held their annual Winter University last October in Luxembourg.

Over 100 participants attended the one-day event and among the topics discussed, the actual economic situation could not be left out.

In his final statement Anthony Clarke confirmed that it is the right time to make an investment in new and promising projects especially as the financial markets actually do not provide better or no return.

It has also been proved that it is in a downtime period that the most promising investments have been done.

What is your take on this statement that you should try to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy?

On Monday I had a chance to participate as one of the reviewers in the European Venture Contest semi-final held in Prague. As I announced earlier here there was seven semi-finals all together taking place in Brussels, Stuttgart, Linz, Copenhagen, Pamplona, Eindhoven and Prague, each picking up three most promising hi-tech companies for the final to be held in Barcelona on December 17 with the cash prize of 90,000 euros.

So who won in Prague?

Continue reading ‘The European Venture Contest semi-final results’

A concrete opportunity for hi-tech innovative companies in the Central Europe is arising from the semi-final of the European Venture Contest (EVC) that will be held in Prague in November. Three winners will be selected for the final in Barcelona (90,000 euros cash prize) and the top 10 presenting companies will receive a free ticket to present at the European Venture Summit in Düsseldorf on December 1-2.

Continue reading ‘Apply for the European Venture Contest semi-final’

Gate2Start is a name of another Framework Programme project focused on the ICT sector and technology transfer. It is a part of the broader Europe Innova initiative addressing the exploitation of research-based innovation and bringing entrepreneurship and market expertise at the start of applied research.

Several coaching and networking events were run in several countries over last two years and there have been also developed some outputs the CITT and NowEurope community can benefit from.

Continue reading ‘Gate2Start help for ICT researchers’

This morning I browsed through Wired Magazine’s interview with “Ted,” the pseudonymous figure behind TheFunded.com. The site offers entrepreneurs unprecedented insight into the workings of the VC community, namely by offering entrepreneurs themselves the chance to swap their VC horror stories without revealing their identify. “Ted,” however, agreed to step out from behind the veil. He is Adeo Ressi, the founder of two successful startup companies.

Naturally we had to have a peek.

Continue reading ‘VCs don’t like TheFunded but entrepreneurs do’

According to Big Four accounting firm, Deloitte, European VCs are increasingly interested in investing in Central and Eastern European. While Western Europe remains the primary focus, 21% of European investors surveyed expressed an interest in Central European deals, while 14% were keen on investing in Eastern Europe.

Deloiitte’s Global Trends in Venture Capital 2006 survey queried 505 investors around the world on their attitudes and interests regarding specific geographic areas and industry sectors.

The top reasons European VCs favored Central Europe were ‘access to foreign markets’, ‘lower cost locations’ and ‘emergence of entrepreneur environment in non-traditional locations’.

A key roadblock for innovative new businesses in Hungary is the relative lack of capital for early stage startup companies. One way this gap is filled in other countries is the ‘business angel’ – a wealthy individual who brings not only his cash, but often his expertise, contacts and elbow grease.

Here in Hungary I know a handful of business angels, and I’ve met similar people in the Czech Republic. They seem to be few and far between – at least in comparison to places like the United States and Britain. Yesterday I came across this study which, for the first time, offers a formal snapshot of the angel phenomenon in Hungary.

So how many are there? The answer depends on how you define a business angel.

Continue reading ‘The elusive business angel’

The Invest in France Agency (AFII) has recently published a report in Franceon Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) which reveals that foreign investors have much more confidence in France?s economic potential than French actors have themselves!

With FDI amounting to 40 billion euros in 2005, France ranks as the fourth most attractive country for foreign investments, behind Great Britain – which enjoyed an exceptional score thanks to an important merger in the energy sector (Shell) – China and the United States. Since 2002, France has positioned itself around the third rank after the United States and China. According to the AFII, completed inward investment projects in France have increased by 12.4 % over 2004 with a record 664 projects creating or safeguarding 33,296 jobs.
Continue reading ‘France remains one of the most attractive countries for foreign investments’

Scope for venture capital in financing SMEs has been, since the late nineties, subject of many discussions and debates. With regard to the flourishing literature and political support towards venture capital, this has appeared as a way to substantially improve SMEs’ access to finance. However, recent assessments have enlightened its decline.

Investment made possible through venture capital (VC) is commonly recognised as an important path to economic growth and innovation. The report Employment Contribution of Private equity and Venture Capital published by the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (http://www.evca.com/html/home.asp) identifies a growing role of VC in Europe, with a 40% increase in the number of companies supported since 1995. The positive impact in terms of employment is also generally agreed so as its contribution to R&D. But the same report also underlines difficulties faced by this sector since the burst of the Internet bubble in 2000-2001. For instance, amount of VC invested in 2000 was nearly 20 billion euros, compared to 10.3 billion euros invested in 2004. One of the major consequences of this decrease is a seed capital based investment decline in start-up companies. Thus, the number of companies in which VC was invested declined from 9,187 in 2000 to 5,557 in 2004.

Continue reading ‘SME access to finance in the EU-15: is venture capital so crucial?’

Scope for venture capital in financing SMEs has been, since the late nineties, subject of many discussions and debates. With regard to the flourishing literature and political support towards venture capital, this has appeared as a way to substantially improve SMEs’ access to finance. However, recent assessments have enlightened its decline.

Investment made possible through venture capital (VC) is commonly recognised as an important path to economic growth and innovation. The report Employment Contribution of Private equity and Venture Capital published by the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA) identifies a growing role of VC in Europe, with a 40% increase in the number of companies supported since 1995. The positive impact in terms of employment is also generally agreed so as its contribution to R&D. But the same report also underlines difficulties faced by this sector since the burst of the Internet bubble in 2000-2001. For instance, amount of VC invested in 2000 was nearly 20 billion euros, compared to 10.3 billion euros invested in 2004. One of the major consequences of this decrease is a seed capital based investment decline in start-up companies. Thus, the number of companies in which VC was invested declined from 9,187 in 2000 to 5,557 in 2004.

Continue reading ‘SME access to finance in the EU-15: is venture capital so crucial?’