Are venture capitalists battling the global recession blues or feeling optimistic about the new opportunities for investing in technology? When Deloitte conducted the first global venture capital (VC) survey five years ago, the community was recovering from the tech bubble bursting and was just beginning to see significant movement toward globalization of the industry. Given the severity of the current global recession, this year’s survey focused on issues surrounding its impact on venture capitalists. The survey questions asked how the global recession is affecting strategy; how future investments are being planned, both by sector and region; what the anticipated size of the next fund will be and who VCs think their limited partners will be. This year’s report looks broadly at the results in a global context, but an appendix is included that breaks out survey responses by geographic regions.
The survey was conducted with venture capitalists (VCs) in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and Israel. There were 725 responses from general partners of venture capital firms with assets under management ranging from less than $100 million to greater than $1 billion. Multiple responses from the same firm were allowed, as the survey was a general measurement of the state of global investing from all general partners, not attitudes of specific firms. If respondents did not answer a question, the count for the question was adjusted accordingly.
The findings uncovered that globalization of the venture capital industry will intensify in coming years, posing significant competitive questions for the United States, and opportunities for emerging markets such as China. Additional findings include: The clean tech sector is poised to become the leading investment category. Levels are more likely to increase in countries outside the US Governments of all countries have a crucial role to play in fostering competitiveness and innovation. Just over half of VCs surveyed remain optimistic that it is a terrific time to invest in promising entrepreneurial companies.
Click here for the full report
Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Paul Robinson
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