I’ve been quite confident thee past few weeks boasting France’s 93% increase in VC funding to French startups from 2011 to 2012 – I mean, 93% that’s amazing. And so, you can imagine my disappointment as I come across this VentureVillage article about investment in Germany to find the following quote:
New figures, published yesterday, ranked Germany second behind the UK in terms of overall deal value in Europe last year, with €822 million across 189 deals compared to the UK’s €1.4 billion across 295 deals in 2012.
I did some quick math and realized that, if the UK is number one, and Germany is number two, then that means that France has been dropped down to third place status. As it turns out, it’s true… at least according to VentureSource. Writer Nina Fowler points out that this is an anomaly in Europe, as the rest of Europe, at least according to VentureSource, is seeing a drop in investment (this obviously goes against a previous study which claimed France’s 93% increase).
Now, if I were a lesser man, I would point out that Rocket Internet, Team Europe, and other small groups account for a large amount of this deal flow, and that as it becomes less and less easy to clone faster than the original can expand, that this anomaly will be seen to be just that; however, I know that it’s just as evident that much of France’s fundraising was also concentrated on a few large, 8-and-9-figure deals, which is just as bad. The point remains that deal flow, despite increasing overall in Europe, is still just as concentrated, and foreign investors would be stupid not to come over here and take a bite out of some of these concentrated powerhouses by investing in European startups.
This year, France, and Europe, is going to “need” something big to propel it forward – I, for one, am waiting for the Criteo IPO announcement with the kicker that they will IPO in London instead of in the US. Then again, that won’t do much good if the UK leaves the EU.