VC Around The World
World
Let’s first start with the definition of Venture Capital. Many may know the definition but it will help those who have a vague idea of the subject. Venture capital (VC) is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT, software, etc. and which is making enough money after the loans have been paid off to throw off excess cash not needed to grow the business. The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as growth funding round (also referred to as Series A round) in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital is a subset of private equity. Therefore, all venture capital is private equity, but not all private equity is venture capital. Those who provide this type of funding are referred to as Venture capitalists. Efraim Landa is a well-known venture capitalist that has garnished a huge respect in the financing industry.
A survey conducted among 440 venture capital investors in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia shows that while there is mixed confidence in the economic outlook, there is a lot of confidence in investment prospects in the United States, Brazil, China and Israel. The majority of those investors, however, are from outside the United States. Seventy-two percent of respondents came from overseas. That reflects the trend of more limited partners being sources globally. The survey notes that more investors have confidence in the ability to raise funds abroad – 2.91 globally compared to 2.55 domestically.
From this global perspective, investors see promise in capital markets, especially as compared to two years ago. In terms of industries they are bullish on cloud computing, social media and software. On other industries, investors are divided. This is particularly true in the biopharmaceutical, clean tech, medical device and healthcare IT sectors. Among those, Brazil and China show great enthusiasm. Given that both countries have a lot of start-ups focused in those industries that comes as no surprise. Neither does the lack of confidence the United States has in those four areas. Investments in those sectors are extremely low.
In terms of government policies, however, the survey shows that investors “remain cautious regarding confidence in their home government’s ability to enact policies that support investments in the coming year. Brazil, Canada, Israel and the Netherlands have the highest confidence in their respective leaderships. India, Australia and Japan show little faith in their leaders’ abilities to carry out pro-entrepreneurship policies.
It was also not surprising to see that investors have the least confidence in Europe. Germany, United Kingdom and France had the lowest investor confidence. Interestingly, however, they had an optimistic view of one another. European participants consistently gave their neighbors high marks on the continent’s ability to bolster start-ups – and low ones for entrepreneurial prospects in Brazil, China and India.
Venture capitalists continue to toss millions at companies supplying technologies to defend cyber-attacks. The number of attacks on U.S. government, military and corporate computer systems is growing every year. So interest in security technology investments has been on the rise as smart people saw a need growing there. We all have our personal information stored in different computer systems. Thieves are willing to go to great lengths to get that valuable personal information. The investments in security tech are aimed at ensuring that the good guys maintain ownership and control of the data.
A survey conducted among 440 venture capital investors in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia shows that while there is mixed confidence in the economic outlook, there is a lot of confidence in investment prospects in the United States, Brazil, China and Israel. The majority of those investors, however, are from outside the United States. Seventy-two percent of respondents came from overseas. That reflects the trend of more limited partners being sources globally. The survey notes that more investors have confidence in the ability to raise funds abroad – 2.91 globally compared to 2.55 domestically.
From this global perspective, investors see promise in capital markets, especially as compared to two years ago. In terms of industries they are bullish on cloud computing, social media and software. On other industries, investors are divided. This is particularly true in the biopharmaceutical, clean tech, medical device and healthcare IT sectors. Among those, Brazil and China show great enthusiasm. Given that both countries have a lot of start-ups focused in those industries that comes as no surprise. Neither does the lack of confidence the United States has in those four areas. Investments in those sectors are extremely low.
In terms of government policies, however, the survey shows that investors “remain cautious regarding confidence in their home government’s ability to enact policies that support investments in the coming year. Brazil, Canada, Israel and the Netherlands have the highest confidence in their respective leaderships. India, Australia and Japan show little faith in their leaders’ abilities to carry out pro-entrepreneurship policies.
It was also not surprising to see that investors have the least confidence in Europe. Germany, United Kingdom and France had the lowest investor confidence. Interestingly, however, they had an optimistic view of one another. European participants consistently gave their neighbors high marks on the continent’s ability to bolster start-ups – and low ones for entrepreneurial prospects in Brazil, China and India.
Venture capitalists continue to toss millions at companies supplying technologies to defend cyber-attacks. The number of attacks on U.S. government, military and corporate computer systems is growing every year. So interest in security technology investments has been on the rise as smart people saw a need growing there. We all have our personal information stored in different computer systems. Thieves are willing to go to great lengths to get that valuable personal information. The investments in security tech are aimed at ensuring that the good guys maintain ownership and control of the data.