The markets have been taking a beating with Coronavirus and startups that were valued in the hundreds of millions have been folding at what seems like an accelerated rate, prompting journalists to post articles about the bubble being burst. Are we heading into a market correction in 2020? Who knows.
What is certain is that European venture hit a local maximum in 2019, attracting over €4 billion in Q4. The American VC funds are now coming to Europe, seeing European startups as a new asset class worth investing in. More on this from Nicolas Colin. Overall, European and Israeli venture capital funds have a lot of dry powder to fund companies in the years to come, regardless of a potential recession.
European Funds launched in 2020 ??
The dry powder in Europe seems to go way beyond the ski slopes. This is a partial list of venture capital funds announced in Europe since the start of 2020:
- Atomico $820M
- Lakestar– $735M
- Felix Capital-$300M
- A/O PropTech – $250M
- Speedinvest– $190M
- Blossom Capital– $185M
- Bitkraft Ventures – $140M
- Oxx – $133M
- Target Global – $120M
- OTB Ventures – $100M
- Anthemis – $90M
- CapitalT – $40M
- As well as other notable funds raised in 2019 including Balderton (€360M), EQT (€660M), Lifeline Ventures (€130M), Northzone (€450M), Accel (€510M) and Rocket Internet (€620M)
The availability of capital is of course a welcome change in Europe, but can also become a double edged sword, as Ivan Farnetti points out:
Capital constraint in Europe is no longer an excuse (although, relative to the US, we still look like the poorer cousin). But with great power comes …inflation and this is a concern now also for European fund managers (less so for entrepreneurs).
— Ivan Farneti (@ivanfarneti) February 27, 2020
Another question is around exits in Europe, and availability of late stage capital.
Israeli VC funds launched in 2020 ??
In Israel there’s also been an influx of fresh capital.
- Grove Ventures – $120M
- TLV Partners – $210M (across two funds)
- Aleph VC – $200M
- Next gear ventures – $30M
The challenges is Israel are different than in Europe. Capital and exits have historically not been real constraints, but the success of the Israeli tech ecosystem, combined with a large number of multinational R&D centres have created a talent crunch.
?Thank you Yannick Roux and Stefano Bernardi for curating this resource.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
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