Clipperton Finance, a leading European corporate finance firm specializing in the technology sector, released a report this week in collaboration with Digimind, the company behind WhoGotFunded.com, which gives a look at the European Investment landscape in Q4 2012 & Q1 2013 for the technology and life sciences sectors. The publication, which Clipperton suggests will be published quartlerly or bi-annually, hopes to provide a “a detailed view of the financing trends in innovation per country, sector, stage etc.” in the European ecosystem.
Some quick European-level figures
25%: the amount of money invested in European Technology ($1.4Bn) in Q1 2013 in comparison to in the US.- 2/3: the proportion of European investments made in IT as a fraction of the total investment done in Europe
- UK still leads the European investment ecosystem, followed by France & Germany
The German-language zone (DACH) received more investment than France
One of the ore interesting figures showed that the DACH (German-speaking parts of Europe) received a total of $232M in financing in Q1 2013, while France received $202M. Of course, the UK is still a powerhouse for investment, with $418M in investment – nearly the sum of the other two regions – during that same period.
Despite the fact that Deezer has received the highest fundraising of any European tech startup in the last 6 months ($132M), it seems that investment in France may be stagnating. We already knew that more than 50% of investment in France came from foreign investors in 2012, and it may be that foreign investment in France has slowed due to increased concerns over the instability of the Euro-zone.
“The average deal size is also a figure worth highlighting: with $6.5m, Germany tops the U.K. with an average deal size of $5.2m (setting aside Truphone’s $119m transaction) and France’s $3.7m” – Clipperton Finance Newsletter, April 2013
However, it could be worse – the report suggests that, apart from a $109M investment round in the Spanish Softonic, an app download portal that competes with Download.com and Allmyapps, Southern Europe has received little to know investment in Q1 2013 – there were less than 15 rounds that exceeded $1M.
Top 5 Deals in France in the last 6 months
I was not surprised to see Appgratis among the top 5 investments in French tech – I’m sure the French government was also aware of this when they swooped in to chastize Apple for booting them from the App Store. Others among them included Recommerce’s $9M investment by 3T, Seventure, and FSN PME.
Clipperton’s first newsletter sure packs a punch in bringing transparency to the European tech ecosystem, and I’m looking forward to receiving regular updates from them.
You can download the full report here, or sign up to receive their newsletter here.