Europe’s digital media economy is doing just fine, if investor returns are anything to go by – Lovefilm is only one of 13 online companies which have, in the last three years, exited at valuations over $250 million, according to one of the VCs behind the deal.
Balderton partner Dharmash Mistry shared with us his own tally of European software success stories…
|
Date |
Company |
Valuation |
Location |
Euro VCs |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Jan-11 |
Lovefilm |
- |
UK |
Balderton, Index, Arts Alliance |
Acquired by Amazon |
|
Nov-10 |
Betfair |
$2bn |
UK |
Balderton, Index |
IPO |
|
Jul-10 |
Ocado Ltd. |
$1.604bn |
UK |
N/A |
IPO |
|
Jul-10 |
QlikTech |
$750m |
SW |
Accel |
IPO |
|
Jun-10 |
Mycitydeal |
$400m |
DE |
Holtzbrinck, European Founders |
Acquired by Groupon |
|
Mar-10 |
Net a porter |
$525m |
UK |
Index (secondary only) |
Bought by richemont |
|
Dec-09 |
YOOX SpA |
$548m |
IT |
Balderton |
IPO |
|
Oct-09 |
Playfish Ltd. |
$300m |
UK |
Index, Accel |
Acquired by Electronic Arts |
|
Dec-08 |
Symbian |
$317m |
UK |
Mobile networks |
Acquired by Nokia |
|
Nov-08 |
MessageLabs |
$695m |
UK |
N/A |
Acquired by Symantec |
|
Jul-08 |
Tele Atlas |
$2.531bn |
BE |
N/A |
Acquired by tomtom |
|
Mar-08 |
Bebo |
$850m |
UK |
Balderton |
Acquired by AOL |
|
Feb-08 |
MySQL |
$1bn |
SW |
Balderton, Index |
Acquired by Sun |
A recent trend has seen Atlas switching focus away from Europe to Boston and Index, whilst remaining UK based, opening a full-time Bay Area outpost.
Mistry tells us: “The industry is increasingly global. We are very much European-centric, but global. A third of our portfolio is based outside of Europe.
“These are software businesses – once you’ve built them, they’re pretty scalable on a global basis. It’s no surprise many of us are spending much of our time building global companies.”
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