Nearly £200m of venture capital was invested in the UK and Irish technology sector in the first quarter of 2006, according to Ascendant, the technology-focused corporate finance advisors.
“There was a significant uplift in activity and money invested in Q1 06," Stuart McKnight, managing director of Ascendant, told Electronics Weekly.
“Approximately £190m was invested in 41 deals by 84 investors.” That compares with £129m invested in 41 deals by 50 investors in the corresponding period in 2005.
“VCs are deploying larger sums into their chosen investments," added McKnight, “while the average deal size was £4.6m versus £3.7m in Q1 05."
The ten biggest deals were Icera (£23m), Apertio (£17m), Airwide Solutions (£14m), Empower Interactive (£10.4m), Cityspace (£10.3m), Anam Mobile (£9.2m), EnvironmentallQ (£8.6m), Zopa (£8.6m), IPAccess (£8.5m), and Neverfail (£5.6m).
 |
Stuart McKnight: VCs deploying
larger sums
|
“Companies providing software, internet/wireless services and developing semiconductor technology are the main beneficiaries," said McKnight.
The aggregate value of the top ten investments in Q1 06 was worth around £115m, representing 60 per cent of all Q1 deals. Only six companies received first round investment of over £0.5m and half the deals were third round or later.
Investing in the software sector recovered after a particularly poor year in 2005, with the investment in software in Q1 06 the same as that for the whole of 2005.
Investors continued the trend, highlighted in Ascendant’s 2005 analysis, of putting increasing amounts of capital into internet/wireless services and semiconductor/optoelectronic companies.
While one third of the capital invested in the UK and Ireland was received by London-based companies, the pace of investment slowed in Ireland and Scotland though it remained stable in Cambridge.
Ascendant said the busiest investors in terms of numbers of deals were Accel, Benchmark, Cazenove, and Close Venture Management, while the busiest investors below the half million pound mark were The Capital Fund and South West Ventures.
Ascendant