Tag: risk capital

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Omar Mohout states that the Belgian venture capital is doing well

Omar Mohout gave us an excellent summary of the capital investments in start-ups and scale-ups during the first quarter of 2016. He concludes that Belgium started the year pretty well. Good news, in times of a shrinking venture capital market in the US.

A few highlights:

  • Belgium is ranked fifth in Europe as far as the number of deals are concerned.
  • Belgium is ranked ninth in Europe for raised capital.
  • Belgium has the highest number of B2B companies in Europe (75%). The countries where B2B is more dominant than B2C are: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France and UK. In the Netherlands this is 38%. Ireland and Italy are the most B2C oriented with 29%.
  • The top 5 sectors of Europe are a replica of the Belgian startup ecosystem with one exception: manufacturing is ranked in the Belgian top 5 (in the European ranking this is security)
  • The average year of foundation for Belgian technology companies that raise at least $1M is 2011, the same as France, UK, Switzerland and Sweden.
  • Belgium is ranked 15th in Europe with an average amount raised of €3.2M. Sweden takes the first place, then Ireland and then Switzerland. The European average is €10M.

Some interesting European trends:

  • Some countries that did well last year appear to stagnate. Spain for example (€ 500M raised in 2015) has € 27M for Q1 (Source: Novobrief.com).
  • Europe performs better in Q1 2016 than in Q1 2015 (Source: tech.eu).
  • Sweden takes the first place in raised capital thanks to a single company: Spotify. This company raised money 2 x this quarter: $ 500M in January and $ 1B in March.
  • The UK leaving France and Germany far behind in raised capital. France is doing better. Germany is lagging behind in a number of deals.
  • Northern Europe is doing very well. All Scandinavian countries, except for Norway, are ranked in the top 10 of both deals as raised amounts.

Mohout also focuses on Belgium:

  • The total of the capital raised in Q1 is € 55M (of which € 51M consists of deals above $ 1M). 47% of the capital is for Flanders.
  • The € 1M club consists of 15 members: Unified Post, Real Impact Analytics, Rombit, Epigan, Smappee, Icometrix, EMASphere, Molecubes, MyMicroInvest, PieSync, Approplan, Pronoia, Twikey, Intix & Social Karma. Nine of these are from Flanders.
  • LRM, Internet Attitude and Pamica (Michel Akkermans) were the most active investors. With regard to crowdfunding, MyMicroInvest was the most active. They had, among others, a very successful campaign. In half of the deals business angels where involved.
  • Walloon Brabant is on the 1st place for raising capital, with Brussels and Antwerp respectively on place 2 and 3. Together, these 3 provinces account for 71% of all venture capital in Belgium.
  • For cities, the first place goes to Brussels, then Antwerp and La Hulpe. Ghent and Hasselt follow on 4 and 5. Together, these 5 cities accounted for 76% of all venture capital.
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Louis Verbeke states that there is too little risk capital available in Flanders

Louis Verbeke, honorary chairman of the Vlerick Business School, retires as a chairman, he looks back on the history of the school and the business community on Kanaal Z. He made some interesting statements, hidden behind the misleading title of the interview – after all, he only talks a few seconds about Minister Geens.

Louis Verbeke states that the difference between right and wrong, for example, turns out to be much softer if you can compare with business people from all over the world. Vice versa, negotiating cultures are quite different as well. The Chinese, for example, would always ensure that in case of a takeover, the counterparty also wins something in the deal. That way they don´t feel like emerging as the loser. In the West, on the other hand, negotiations are played out to the last cent.

Part of the interview also deals with risk capital, and especially the lack of that risk capital in Flanders. Louis Verbeke indicates that legislation for shareholders is better in our neighbouring countries. In France for instance, the long-term shareholder benefits from a multiple voting right. And in Germany, the legislation is more favourable for shareholders. It’s worth the trouble to take a proper look at this, don’t you agree?

Watch the entire interview via this link to Kanaal Z