ELC Welcomes Positive Report for UK Technology Sector
The Calibre One Index a quarterly review of tech investor activity shows that more venture capital was put to work in the European technology sector in the first quarter of 2008 than ever before. The previous high of $1.02 billion in the first quarter of 2007 was easily eclipsed by a huge total of $1.33 billion across Europe.
Most significantly, the major growth was in the UK, where the grand total investment of $592M accounted for nearly half the combined European figure. This total is more than the previous three quarters combined and constitutes a spectacular increase on the disappointing $130M in the last quarter of 2007.
Big investment deals such as those in SpinVox ($100M), Moneyexpert ($50), Seatwave ($25M), Quartix ($25M), Velocix ($27M), OREcon ($25M) and Realtime ($50M) helped propel the average deal figure in Europe to above $10M for the first time ever. Another first is that the UK deal average of $11.85M was greater than the US figure of $11.59M over the same period.
Harry Tee, chairman of the ELC, commented: This is very encouraging indeed and proves the point we have been making for some time: that the UK is, and can continue to be, at the forefront in innovative technologies. The UK technology sector is alive and well and is punching well above its weight.
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