Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: In Europe, the diversity of venture capital (VC) investments across individual jurisdictions helped to maintain the robustness of the VC market despite local uncertainties like Brexit in the UK, said a research report.
Overall VC capital investment reached $6.5bn during the first quarter of 2019, just shy of the record high established in Q4, 2018. However, deal volume plummeted, falling from 882 in the last quarter of 2018 to only 487 this quarter - representing the lowest quarterly total since late 2010.
According to the Q1 2019 edition of KPMG Enterprise's Venture Pulse report, VC investment saw mixed results this quarter, perhaps influenced by ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and associated challenges with Brexit.
Despite the heightening level of uncertainty, many countries within Europe saw significant interest from VC investors.
The region saw an exciting mix of $100m+ megadeals during Q1'19, including challenger bank N26 in Germany, electric vehicle charging technology company Ovo Energy in the UK, biotech company Arvelle Therapeutics in Switzerland and farming startup Ynsect in France.
Digital banks received a significant amount of attention from investors in Europe during Q1'19, with Germany-based N26 raising $300m and UK-based Starling Bank raising almost $100m.
VC investment in the UK slowed somewhat in Q1'19 amid ongoing Brexit uncertainty, with the most significant funds going to late-stage com...................... To view our full article Click here
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