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August 03, 2006
The UK's Clubby VC Market
Library House has published a meaty report on the UK venture capital market, tracking among other things every VC-backed company in the country. (See the link below to get the full report). The graphic showing how VCs syndicate their deals, or co-invest with each other, is useful for a quick overview of who to you need to know in the UK.
As we read it, Atlas, Quester, and 3i are the biggest investors in the UK market and they frequently co-invest with each other, but also with fund managers coming out of the US, namely Benchmark and Accel, both of which have recently raised their second funds for investing on this side of the Atlantic.
Institutional Investors with More Than 20 Deals in the Venture-Backed Portfolio
The thickness of the lines connecting the VCs firms shows the frequency of co-investments. The colouring of the node reflects the number of deals - increasing from yellow to red.
Out in right field is Oxford Seed Capital, an early stage investor, which as Library House informed us this morning is actually the most active investor in the UK in the last 12 months, Library House has tracked 56 investments, but it generates few co-investments with the more active VCs in the UK.
We don't know Seed Capital's portfolio well enough to say if the reason for the low co-investment activity is that its startups are unattractive, or if it is just too early stage (for the active VCs), or if it is not networking enough with the right people. We'll keep our ears open on the topic and hopefully write an update soon.
Read - Beyond the Chasm:The Venture-Backed Report - UK - 2006 (registration required but report is free)
Posted on August 3, 2006 11:12 AM | Posted to Venture Capital | Permalink
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