Institutional Investor (April 6)
“Venture capital activity has all but dried up for the hedge funds (and/or their VC arms) that used to be among the most active in the private market for tech, internet, and new economy companies.”
Tags: Active, Dried up, Hedge funds, Internet, New economy, Private market, Tech, Venture-capital
Financial Times (August 1)
“The venture capital world is in the grip of a silent crash. Unlike the stock market, there are no daily market indexes to broadcast the pain, and no individual share prices for anxious tech employees to watch as their personal wealth evaporates.” It remains unclear “how long it will take the venture capital market to reset, or how many of today’s investors and start-ups will still be standing when it does.”
Tags: Anxious, Indexes, Investors, Pain, Personal wealth, Reset, Share prices, Silent crash, Start-ups, Stock market, Tech employees, Venture-capital
Institutional Investor (August 24)
Last year, “investment in Central and Eastern European companies through private equity and venture capital” hit “its highest rate in seven years,” continuing “an upward trajectory since 2013, when the market bottomed out.” Private equity fundraising rose 62% and “total private equity investment in the region hit €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion).”
Fortune (January 23)
China’s investment in financial technology (fintech) has surged ahead of North America’s, accounting for “more than half of all fintech investments globally in the first nine months of last year…. Specifically in terms of venture capital, the country more than doubled its worldwide share of the investment category, rising to 46% of the global total versus just 19% the same period in 2015.” In contrast, the U.S. dropped from 56% to 41%.
Tags: China, Fintech, Investment, North America, U.S., Venture-capital
Bloomberg (October 31)
“Of all of the scary economic data that routinely streams out of Japan, this statistic should terrify you: $800 million.” The “staggeringly small figure” is the total value of completed venture capital deals for Japan in 2015. Representing Japan’s risk-adverse culture, $800 million “explains a great deal about why the world’s third-largest economy continues to struggle, no matter how much cash the central bank pours into it. Too few Japanese are starting new companies.” In comparison, 2015 venture deals totaled “$72 billion in the U.S. and $49 billion in China. Even tiny Israel managed $2.6 billion in deals.”
Tags: Central bank, China, Deals, Economic data, Israel, Japan, Risk adverse, Statistics, U.S., Venture-capital
Euromoney (April 4)
“After a record year for fund raising, large fintech companies are now emerging in marketplace lending and payments, with many more newcomers deploying venture capital money raised in $25 million to $50 million chunks to transform capital markets and traditional banking mainstays such as mortgage lending.” Fintech could prove highly disruptive. “Fintech start-ups are building revolutionary applications for blockchain, attacking every specialist niche in the financial world and keeping the image of fintech clean with business ventures aimed at inclusion.”
Tags: Applications, Banking mainstays, Blockchain, Fintech, Fund raising, Mortgage lending, Niche, Payments, Revolutionary, Venture-capital
Bloomberg (March 18)
Mercari Inc. just “became the first Japanese startup worth at least $1 billion,” making it Japan’s only unicorn. “Though the valuation is an accomplishment for Mercari, it also highlights the dearth of major private startups in the world’s third-largest economy.” Of the 155 unicorns worldwide, 92 are in the U.S., 25 in China, seven in India and only one in Japan. “Japan has suffered from a lack of venture capital and a risk-averse culture where the best and brightest strive for stable jobs at big companies and then stay for life.”
Tags: China, India, Japan, Mercari, Risk-averse culture, Startup, U.S., Unicorn, Valuation, Venture-capital
Wall Street Journal (December 5, 2013)
Chinese “leaders are attempting to create an innovation ecosystem whereby government ministries funnel money through universities, think-tanks, businesses of all sizes, cities, real-estate developers and venture-capital investors.” Despite massive governmental support, “China still has trouble retaining its best and brightest talents onshore…. A growing number of Chinese scientists who had returned to China from the West are now leaving again.” While there are many reasons, including environmental pollution, the stifling political environment seems to be the largest factor. Innovative people generally don’t want to live where “they can’t network on Facebook or voice freewheeling opinions on any topic, business or political, under the sun.”
Tags: China, Chinese, Environment, Facebook, Government, Innovativon, Investors, Ministries, Network, Opinions, Politics, Pollution, Real estate, Scientists, Talent, Think-tanks, Venture-capital, West
