Calibre One Index

Foreword Welcome

Established in 1999, Calibre One is a leading, international Executive Search firm based in Europe and North America.

Calibre One specialises in building main board and senior management teams for Venture Capital and Private Equity backed software, hardware, business services, communications, cleantech and internet businesses. We work with investors in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, South Africa, and Israel.

The Calibre One Index is a comprehensive review of the investment ecosystem in Europe and North America. The Index now details the VC investments made in technology firms, some of the moves made by the people that lead those firms and a summary of the disclosed exits in this space. Published in Europe and North America every January, April, July and October, the Calibre One Index is compiled by Calibre One – the world’s leading technology Executive Search firm.

James Brocket Managing Partner – Europe

One of the reasons we developed the Calibre One Index way back in 2003, was to try and draw comparison between the European and US tech venture capital scenes. Well, just at the time when European governments are waking up to the notion that providing an environment conducive to helping start-ups flourish is potentially a good thing for the economy, the figures in this edition of the Index reveal that the gulf today between the US and Europe, is wider that it has ever been.

There are many reasons for this, and most are so obvious as to not warrant a mention, but there are a couple, in particular, that are;

1. Frothy valuations

Contents Recent Assignments

Foreword

James Brocket discusses Quarter 1 Investment Analysis Deal Highlights US

Deal Highlights Europe Investments

North America United Kingdom France DACH

BENELUX

Northern Europe Ireland

Southern Europe Eastern Europe Israel

Executive Moves Communications Internet Software Hardware

Business Services Cleantech

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It is a simple fact that valuations for tech companies are higher in the US. They therefore are able to close much bigger investment rounds than their European counterparts. There are many pundits way better qualified than me to pass comment on the valuations of the current clutch of companies such as Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, Zynga and many others. However, I still have vivid memories of the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2001. Dissenting voices back then were accused of ‘just not getting it’. Shortly afterwards the sector went into a decline so sharp and violent that all who witnessed it were sure that the same thing could never happen again. Sure, these companies differ in many ways from their analogues in ‘Web 1.0’, not the least of which is that most are producing very significant revenues and are still growing very fast. To describe these valuations as ‘frothy’ may prove to be an understatement.

2. Flipping companies

As valuations climb, it brings into focus the lost opportunities for Europe where some of our best companies morph from European to US companies, and go on to be categorised as such for subsequent VC rounds and then exits. Obviously, one of the great attractions to these companies is the greater valuations they can expect in the US.

Plastic Logic was not long ago the pride of Cambridge, this quarter it closed $200m of Russian venture capital funding and was being hailed as a ‘Mountain View based developer of ereader technologies’. Also, in the same month as Appsense came in at #12 in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 – the list of the UKs leading private companies, I read another article referring to it as a ‘New York based software company’. Its website seems to confirm this. These companies are therefore now categorised as US companies in the Index. If they had not made the change then the numbers for the UK would prove to be much improved.

Whilst, if you’re batting for Europe, it makes difficult reading, one thing this edition of the Calibre One Index does show is that the global tech sector is powering ahead – and that is great for everybody. Europe has a lot of work to do if it is to grow, and retain, its prize technology businesses, rather than just accepting its current position as an ‘incubator’ preparing great companies for their relocation to the US.

The Quarterly Transatlantic Tech Investment Review

Calibre One : International Executive Search

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