The UK saw a reasonably healthy growth in investment in technology startups last quarter, except for the semiconductor sector.
Analysis by Ascendant showed a positive trend of 65 companies receiving £153m, up 48% and 32% respectively over Q1 09, from 82 investors. But the average deal size dropped significantly to just £2.4m and there was no venture capital investment in semiconductor or optoelectroncs companies at all.
Stuart McKnight of Ascendant points out that there is a usually significant bounce in the first quarter of each year which sets the pace for the year as a whole - typically about 30% of the whole year's capital is committed in Q1. "This did not happen in 2009 because of the recession, but if the market reverts to its normal behaviour we have a very slow 2010 for tech businesses raising finance," he said.
Investment in internet startups was strongest over the quarter at £50m, followed by Cleantech at £32m. The biggest investment was DNA sequencing startup Oxford Nanopore raising £17m with London-based email services company Mimecast raising £13m.
Nick Flaherty has been covering technology and startups since 1990 and is based in Bristol, where he co-founded the SiliconSouthWest network. During that time he has worked for most of the electronics magazines and newspapers in the UK and several in Europe and the US, covering all areas of the industry. He blogs at The Embedded blog www.embeddedblog.blogspot.com and Portable Multimedia www.portablemultimedia.blogspot.com and at www.flaherty.co.uk.
Stuart McKnight of Ascendant points out that there is a usually significant bounce in the first quarter of each year which sets the pace for the year as a whole - typically about 30% of the whole year's capital is committed in Q1. "This did not happen in 2009 because of the recession, but if the market reverts to its normal behaviour we have a very slow 2010 for tech businesses raising finance," he said.
Investment in internet startups was strongest over the quarter at £50m, followed by Cleantech at £32m. The biggest investment was DNA sequencing startup Oxford Nanopore raising £17m with London-based email services company Mimecast raising £13m.
Nick Flaherty has been covering technology and startups since 1990 and is based in Bristol, where he co-founded the SiliconSouthWest network. During that time he has worked for most of the electronics magazines and newspapers in the UK and several in Europe and the US, covering all areas of the industry. He blogs at The Embedded blog www.embeddedblog.blogspot.com and Portable Multimedia www.portablemultimedia.blogspot.com and at www.flaherty.co.uk.
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