Early stage deals on an upward curve

Whilst the buyout segment is suffering a major lull at the end of the year, it is important to point out that the volume of deals in the early-stage sector across Europe have recovered over the past year to the highest value level since 2007.

The third quarter volume figures for investments in this space show a marked rise of 14% from 92 to 105 deals. Significantly, this is the fourth successive quarter of growth and the first quarter in which the Barometer has registered more than 100 early-stage deals. A glance through previous editions show full year early-stage totals of 121 deals in 2005, 175 in 2006 and 293 in 2007.

With the YTD figure so far already showing a 22% increase over the same three quarters of 2007, the full-year total for 2008 will clearly be the highest since the tech boom at the beginning of this decade.

While venture is on the rise, the fall in buyouts can also be correlated to a rise in expansion deals, which this month had an impressive combined value of over EUR60m.

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