The uplift in technology investments in UK and Ireland technology ventures seen in Q1 has continued throughout the year with more money invested in the first three quarters of 2006 than in the whole of 2005, according to Ascendant, the technology corporate finance advisors.
“Looking at just Q3, around £160m was invested in 37 deals by 60 investors,” said Stuart McKnight, managing director of Ascendant.
In the first half of 2006, some £360m was invested in 88 deals by 142 investors. So far in the first nine months of this year, over £520m has been invested, compared to the year-end total for 2005 of £484m.
The biggest ten deals done in Q3, representing 27 per cent in number, but 80 per cent in value, of all the Q3 deals done and funds invested, were: FX Alliance, £42m; Digiweb, £13m; Cachelogic, £11m; Viagogo, £11m; Keronite £10m; Aggregator, £9m; Deepstream £8m; Nomad, £8m; Newnham Research, £7m; and Ubiquisys, £6m.
The busiest Q3 investor was 3i, with six deals, followed by Esprit (Cazenove/Prelude), Accel and Amadeus. The largest deal, the FX deal, was funded
by the US investor Crossover Ventures. In Q2 2006, the biggest deals done were: Pipex Wireless, £25m; Icera, £23m); Apertio, £17m; Airwide Solutions, £14m; Ocean Power Delivery, £13m; PicoChip,£11m; Empower, £10m; and Anam Mobile, £9m.