Key areas for focus include sales and marketing in Asia, as well as further product development in its semiconductor inspection market. Funding will also be used to enhance support and collaborations with existing customers in these markets.

The company was spun out of Toshiba Research Europe in April 2001 by its co-founders, Sir Michael Pepper and Arnone to exploit the intellectual property and expertise developed there, and also works closely with the Cavendish laboratory where Pepper is a professor. The technology is also used for spectroscopy, as it produces faster results than X-ray and enables non-destructive, internal, chemical analysis of tablets and capsules for pharmaceutical testing.

TeraView is currently working closely with major pharmaceutical customers on drug formulation, product development and manufacturing. It also works with customers in the analytical instrumentation and defence,  supporting government laboratories active in homeland security.

PowerOasis is an energy partner for two of the world's largest network equipment providers and some of the World's largest mobile telecom operators, which use PowerOasis technology to reduce the operating cost of power while dramatically improving network availability.

"Our energy storage solutions cut diesel consumption by at least 50% and further reduce power operating expenses by integrating our solar and wind components,  said John O'Donohue, CEO. "Our wireless network power management technology is available at the right time to help mobile telecom operators reduce power costs, lower carbon emissions, increase site uptime and improve the operational and business management of power while delivering a return on investment in 18 months or less".

YFM Equity Partners through three of their managed funds - Chandos Fund and British Smaller Companies VCTs - are joining existing investors including Oxford Capital Partners, MTI Partners, OCP Angels and a number of private investors in the all equity deal.

The investment will primarily be used for accelerating sales and product development for its SmartHub, which adds Smart Grid capability and a next generation Power OSS platform which gives total network power visibility at the network operations centre.

"We have closely followed PowerOasis from 2008 when it was co-founded by Pete Bishop, previously R&D Engineering Manager for Motorola, supported by SETsquared in the University of Bath Innovation Centre," Julian Dennard, Investment Director at YFM Equity Partners. "To my mind it has now grown and developed to be one of Britain's finest small companies and we are delighted that it has now reached the stage where YFM Equity Partners' funds can help to accelerate its growth. We look forward to building our relationship with the management team as it transforms the way mobile telecom operators utilise power in both developing and developed markets."

The money will be used to develop Movidius' revenue growth as the company continues deployments of its Myriad platform to customers in the mobile phone and consumer electronics markets.

Myriad 3D combines Movidius' low-power multi-core processor and application software technology to enable the integration of autostereoscopic 3D multimedia capabilities including real-time 'on the fly' 2D to 3D conversion of 2D video, HD 3D video capture and HD 3D display.

"Our funding announcement comes as we end a year of tremendous growth which saw Movidius continue to engage with the top players in the mobile handset space," said Sean Mitchell, CEO at Movidius. "This latest investment is a ringing endorsement from our shareholders and demonstrates their continued confidence in our market leading 3D multimedia capabilities. Movidius is on track to meet its ambitious targets for growth, financial performance and customer engagement."

IBM holds Smartcamps across the world and this was the first one in the UK. The overall winner was London-based Profitero which provides pricing intelligence service for retailers and manufacturers using online competitive data.

Former chairman of Hitachi and STMicroelectronics jint venture SuperH, Trowbridge led the merger of Hitachi Semiconductor with Mitsubishi Semiconductor in Europe to form Renesas Technology Europe and led the company as its CEO and then as Chairman until 2010. More recently he was chairman of wireless video streaming company ProVision Communications.

"I am delighted to be joining an outstanding team at UltraSoC," said Trowbridge. "The UltraDebug platform will bring huge benefits to all stages of embedded system development."

UltraSoC is backed by UK fund Octopus Investments to develop advanced application debugging technology for the embedded multi-processor systems. The company was formed by the former Director of Business Development at Cambridge Display Technology, Karl Heeks, and Professor Klaus D McDonald-Maier of the University of Essex as chief scientist and head of product development. 

In September UltraSOC appointed the former CTO and co-founder of DisplayLink, Andy Fisher, as Chief Technology Officer who will play a key role in the development of the technology and in supporting the commercial activity. 

At the heart of the Seedups' concept is the need to give Startups a fair valuation and ensure that companies can gain access to the funding they need to survive. Seedups uses a "wisdom of crowd" matching engine to give a fair valuation of a startup's worth. Investors compete with micro-bids to ensure they can are part of the equity deal, and tools are in place to ensure that Investors can network and conduct collective due diligence on various startups and place bids on projects. It is free to register for both parties.

"It's impossible to underestimate the importance of entrepreneurial activity: most new jobs are brought about by new companies, not larger ones. They really are the lifeblood of the economy, yet they are the ones that struggle to raise the working capital they need to grow.

Since going live in February of this year, Seedups has attracted nearly 900 entrepreneurs and nearly 400 investors from the USA, UK and Ireland.

The device tests fingerprints for illegal drugs and other substances using disposable cartridges. The samples are quick and easy to collect and do not require specialist handling or biohazard precautions. Because of the imaging of the fingerprint, they have an in-built watertight chain of evidence continuity that the company says is almost impossible to cheat.

The development of the Intelligent Fingerprinting hand-held testing device has been a technological success," said David Russell, CTO of Intelligent Fingerprinting and Professor of Chemistry at UEA's School of Chemistry. "Working closely with eg technology we have been able to design a device that carries out the full analysis and imaging of a fingerprint in only a few minutes. The first prototype will be able to test individuals for drugs of abuse but we will be working to widen the range of substances to include other drugs and health markers that are found in fingerprints."

"Intelligent Fingerprinting's core intellectual property is fascinating, offering a unique, robust way of linking a test result to the individual," said Danny Godfrey, director of eg technology. "Designing a device to automate their well-defined laboratory process has required input from all of our skill groups - microfluidics, optics, electronics, software, industrial and mechanical design. The release of the prototype is a major milestone towards the unveiling of the production device next year and we're delighted to be part of such an exciting development."

The prototype is scheduled to go into full production in 2012 and the team will work with customers to develop new applications.

"There has already been considerable worldwide interest in the use of the technology for testing within a wide range of applications, including criminal justice forensic science, homeland security, and institutional testing such as prisons and workplaces. But the ability of a hand-held device to carry out testing in-situ brings a whole new range of benefits and opportunities," said said Paul Yates, business development manager at Intelligent Fingerprinting.

More deals for Healthcare companies went to the less capital intensive seed and first rounds, with 56 deals raising €262m, up 10% on the previous quarter. Within that, investment in the Medical Devices sector more than doubled to €93 million as deal flow rose 71% to 24 deals.

"In the U.S., medical device investors have been voicing concerns the clarity of the Food and Drug Administration requirements for the approval of devices. This could be pushing some investors to look for opportunities overseas and Europe may be benefiting from that," said Anthony Sheldon, research manager at Dow Jones VentureSource.

The Information Technology industry recorded its lowest quarterly deal count as 63 deals raised €183 million, a 13% drop in deal flow and 31% drop in capital invested. The Software sector continued to be the most popular investment area within IT as 45 deals raised €107 million.

The ongoing European debt crisis, drop in consumer and business confidence and general uncertainty surrounding global economic conditions continue to affect levels of venture capital financing activity in the region significantly," said Sheldon. "With no clear indication of an improving global economic environment, it remains to be seen whether the small gains made this quarter in the consumer and business sectors are a genuine cause for optimism looking forward to 2012."

But the UK remains the favourite destination for venture capital investment in Europe, taking 35% of overall investment and 33% of deals. UK start-ups €336m for 73 deals, a 4% drop in deal count but a 45% increase in capital raised.

France came in second with 39 deals raised €189m, down 36% in deal flow and investment, with Germany in third with 24 deals raising €81m.

The company was set up by Keith Errey, former chief executive officer of Toumaz Technology, which developed a wireless sensor system and data infrastructure for patient monitoring.

Isansys is looking to sell the platform into large hospitals that want to optimise management of their non-critical care patients, and for smaller hospitals that do not currently have the large medical manpower required to monitor individual non-critical care patients.

The Indian healthcare market is expected to triple to $150bn by 2017 as incomes rise and the population ages. A growing focus on preventative medicine in the country is leading to significantly increased spending on overall healthcare.

"India is a country of great interest and strategic importance to us," said Errey. "With a year-on-year GDP growth of 7 per cent or more, a rapidly growing and increasingly wealthy middle class, and a vastly underserved healthcare market, we see huge opportunities for delivering next-generation healthcare services, and we believe that Isansys is ideally placed to bring the valuable benefits of our unique services to the people of India, both in urban and rural communities. We see this move as a step towards a mutually beneficial market opportunity that will use the availability of local goods and services for the local market."

 "We are now in active discussions with the major hospital operators that serve the growing middle classes - already numbering more than 300 million - and proving the strong business case our system creates for hospitals and their patients to harness a wealth of new opportunities for improved clinical outcomes, reduced overall costs and increased revenues," said Isansys' Director of Business Development, Rebecca Weir. "We are also working with companies and organisations developing new healthcare delivery models for the 850 million people who live in rural India. Our scalable and low-cost technology and service models offer clear benefits that make them uniquely suitable for this vast market."

The backing will help accelerate its expansion, particularly in the emerging mobile patient communication market. The company's services have already successfully supported more than 600,000 patients participating in clinical trials in more than 70 countries, including working with Pfizer on the industry's first ever mobile-enabled clinical trial. It is also targeting opportunities in the broader healthcare market as its mobile platform can also be used to manage patient education, medication compliance and measure effectiveness.

The company was founded in 2004 by Chief Executive Tim Davis and Chief Technology Officer Mike Hansen and is already generating profits and employs some 40 staff. It has just opened a second UK office in Nottingham to accommodate up to 30 more staff.

In the $75tn management industry, even a minute mood shift can have remarkable effect on the $7bn a year European VC industry. Governments and corporates alike have come to realise that innovation is part of the recipe to get developed economies back into gear and face off the challenge of our ageing populations. A good example is Intel Capital's investment in Aldebaran Robotics, a Go4Venture advisory client in France that is developing a humanoid robotics for kids' edutainment and minding the elderly.

Of course, not all investments can ride such long-term waves. In capital-constrained Europe, outside Tier 1 VCs who have depth of resources, smaller investors need to focus on savvy capital efficient investments with reasonably short exit horizons, and this is where Europe's advantage lies in venture investing.

A good example is the sale of powerline chip maker ADD Semiconductor to Atmel. Madrid-based VC Adara Venture Partners financed the spin-off from the Zaragossa University and steered the team to exit 4 years later. This is this sort of staple investments which will bring funds back to European venture investing.

Overall figures in August were ahead of the same period last year (+22%) with more money being deployed on the large headline transactions over £5m.On a year-to-date basis, the number of transactions is similar to 2010, but total amounts still well ahead by 25%.

In terms of specific transactions, August shows the usual mix skewed toward late-stage, internet/digital media and cleantech, but there is also some evidence that a few "native" US investors (without a European office) are scouting the European landscape more systematically. Lightspeed Ventures had two recent transactions; admittedly two follow-on investments in ebuzzing (formerly known as Wikio) and Kixeye. The group has also seen much more of the likes of Battery Ventures, North Bridge, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and VantagePoint Partners. This shows that some VCs are arbitraging start-up valuations on both sides of the Atlantic, trading in Europeans' generally lesser execution capability for lower valuation.

A few large investors are itching also to get back into venture, provided they can get exposure to major absolute upsides, and preferably as co-investors rather than suffering the overhead of a venture fund. A recent example is Invesco, which, as well as being a major investor in the spin-off vehicle Imperial Innovations at Imperial College, London, is also a co-investor with them on certain deals such as Nexeon. These kind of arrangements will become a much more common feature of next generation VCs, with more industry segmentation and another generation of first-time managers who are more operational, more differentiated and more international backed by cornerstone investors demanding exacting co-investment rights.

This same report also highlighted that, even including the nightmare years of 2008 & 2009, over the last 10 years the average return for the over 425 fabless start-ups funded by VCs has remained significantly positive. For those 200 companies that were able to limit their investment needs to  under $25M investors could on average double their money and the top quartile gave an average of 5x return. "With this growing imbalance emerging perhaps investors could expect an even higher average return in the near future?" he said.

Blu-Wireless has taken the approach of working as a small highly skilled team at minimal cost with strong system and market knowledge to develop a product for the new 60GHz wireless standard. "Exploiting Bristol strengths in multiprocessor, accelerator and system design we now have a highly optimal design, but retaining the flexibility to quickly add extensions if we need them," he said. "We understand that the market will have other players, but we have been able to dramatically reduce risks and the cash required for our development by building partnerships with companies committed to providing core technologies we can build upon. This includes exclusive access to 60GHz RF IP in 40nm CMOS from a leading industry partner."

"What I'm highlighting is that it is time for the VCs to re-appraise the fabless semiconductor sector and realise that great opportunities exist now if they invest in the right companies," said Nurser.  "Gone are the times of start-ups coming to a VC asking for fifty millions of dollars on the back of a few 'visionary' foils where you do everything from scratch, and attempt to take on the world head on. It doesn't work - and it shouldn't. It's working out where the high growth gaps are in the market, building on partnerships for core technology to manage costs and risks, and come up with something that can do the job 2 or 3 times better and more quickly than any of your competitors."

Among the eight companies making presentations are electronics start-ups Attomarker, Sofant Technologies and Xsilon.

Attomarker is a spin out of Exeter University and is developing to develop  a low-cost, robust instrument for use in a GP's surgery that can measure up to 100 components of whole blood in 15 minutes. Sofant is a spinout of Edinburgh University developing smart antenna technology while Bristol-based Xsilon is developing smart energy networking technology taht fits into a 13A plug.

Also exhibiting are Blu-Wireless Technology with its low cost multi-Gigabit 60GHz WiFi chips, products set to become a core component of all tomorrow's consumer electronics devices and HP Labs 'spin out' Calvium using software as a service for mobile phone app development tools

Other start-ups making pitches include digital media software company dpcloud; energy generation from waste company SEaB Energy; online transport logistics company Status Transport Connections; and document management company TopicLogic.

"The Investment Showcase links early-stage high tech high growth potential companies with sources of funding, and has proven to be a very successful event for both showcasing companies and investors," said Keith Robson, Chair of the SETsquared Partnership. "Innovative start-ups make a valuable contribution to the UK's economic growth, and SETsquared's track record to date is a 90% survival rate for graduating incubated companies."

Other Companies at the Investment Showcase:

• Alloy RFID Solutions - community loyalty solution which uses one loyalty card to serve all participating retailers in a local community
• Azurtane - Real-time measurements of gas emissions, and energy consumption; targeted at the operators of the merchant marine fleet
• Bamboo Innovations - Improving financial confidence by combining online education with a 3D city regeneration game.
• Fantasy Shopper - a platform which centralises, socialises and gamifies online shopping.
• iGeolise - an application that will allow users of any website, mobile or digital application to search for content they can reach within the time they have available.
• ImobiGo - Enables pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and similar venues to increase sales by accurately measuring and rewarding customer loyalty.
• IPROS CUBE - a cloud-based business performance improvement platform
• Kraft Maus - Integrates off-grid, hybrid renewable energy systems to deliver instant and continuous AC and DC power, in static, mobile and portable configurations
• Locale - Allows SMEs to launch foreign-language versions of their e-commerce websites for 20% of the current cost.
• TISICS - A lightweight composite material that is an alternative to high strength steel for aerospace. Lighter means cheaper, cleaner flying; lower CO2 emissions, lower fuel consumption and less carbon tax.