The Wall Street Journal points to further evidence of the collapse of Venture Capital. Typical of the doom laden quotes is this: “Dallas is an entrepreneurial city, but it won’t be driven by venture capital going forward,” said Daniel T. Owen, a venture capitalist at the 16th-floor firm H02 Partners, which plans to wind down its venture business over the next few …
Is a Half Baked £1Bn Innovation Fund Better Than None At All?
@Lord Drayson had a quick look at my take on the new innovation fund and tweeted This article misunderstands how this fund will work. I will blog on the BIS site to spell it out. I’m looking forward to it. There is no doubt about the commitment of the Lords Mandelson and Drayson to stimulating the UK economy though science …
The UK Innovation Fund – Just As Half Baked As Most Business Plans?
I’m probably nor the only one to be underwhelmed by the UK governments new £1Bn “Innovation Fund” – it’s actually £150m but there are hopes that with private sector leverage it could swell to £1Bn by, erm, 2019! The main worry is that the UK government has made a habit in recent years of announcing things and then forgetting about …
Class R Stock – A New Mechanism For Funding Science Based Start Ups?
One of the biggest threats to scientific innovation has always been the lack of capital. Venture capital only really makes sense if companies can grow rapidly, and most other equity investments tend to be illiquid until an exit is found. Brian McConnel at Gigacom takes a look at ‘Class R’ stock, a possible investment model that is halfway between a …
Tech VCs Hope For A Quick Recovery
The chart below shows the recent decline in valuations of late stage venture backed companies as reported by the Wall Street Journal. It’s a decline that hurts everybody, with cash starved companies taking whatever they can get, which is often a far cry from what was promised and according to the WSJ, existing investors are increasingly resorting to propping up …
Cleantech Investors Desperately Seeking The Exit
In my predictions over the last year I mentioned that Clean Tech would have a rocky time in 2009 for four reasons Renewable energy interest tends to lag oil prices by 6-12 months and with oil almost back to 2006 levels a lot of transient interest will evaporate Lot’s of clean tech companies based their business models on sustained high …
Angels vs VCs
Stephen Fleming at Academic VC has an interesting article about the diverging interests of angel investors & VCs. The basic premise is that the high returns required by venture funds drive them to take decisions which are neither in the interest of the founders nor the early stage (Angel) investors. I’ve seen this happen in a number of companies, and …
Oops, I Just Went Green!
I spent a rather enlightening afternoon today at the UK Aware Ideas for Greener Living exhibition speaking on a panel hosted by Francis Sealy of 21st Century Network (@21stCN). Francis had selected a panel consisting of a technology expert (myself) and a couple of people who were interested in living a more simple life. One of these, a chap called …
The Best Minds in the UK At Loggerheads Over Technology
British scientists are hopping mad about comments from Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, who recently argued against increased science funding, presumably on the grounds that all the money had already been spent on health and safety agencies, totally ineffective government agencies and bailing out Scottish Banks. I would expect the Governor of the Bank of England to understand a little bit of …
VCs Dabble, Dither & Diversify
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about how “with their core business in shambles, some venture capitalists are changing their stripes, styling themselves as investors in distressed assets and public companies.” Here’s why: Start- ups today take a median 6.6 years to go public or get sold, up from 5.4 years in 2005, according to research firm VentureSource. …