Venture Capital numbers Q4 2009. US recovery continues. Europe – not so much.

Update: To download this data in a spreadsheet, go here: BLN Charts and CalibreOne Index numbers 2004-2009

The latest venture investment numbers from the Calibre One hit the wires and there is some GOOD NEWS!

• More deals were done across US and Europe in Q4 2009 than in any quarter since the index started in Q1 2004. A total of 560 deals.
• The US investment recovery continues and Q4 2009 ranked 7th out of 24 previous quarters in terms of dollars invested. ($3,396 million). The second chart here illustrates quite clearly how extraordinarily quickly the venture tap (that would be the venture faucet in the US) was turned off in 2008. It has already increased by about 300% on Q4 2008.

Elsewhere, the news is less good.

• Europe is seemingly struggling to join in with the US recovery. Investment into France and UK companies is still at  less than half the level it was at the beginning of 2008.
• Only Benelux bucked the trend with the best ever quarter’s investment. (But it is a small market so cannot be considered statistically significant.

I have take the CalibreOne data provided in this report and added it into their historical data to provide a view of longer term trends. The report lists all of the companies that have been counted in the data. Note that this records announced deals and is not intended to be an exhaustive analysis. It does not claim to be infallible and it does not correct previous quarters as more information comes to light. It does however provide a good bellweather for the industry overall.

Combined levels back to pre-bust levels.

VC Investment US & Europe Q4 2009

Those crazy Americans just couldn’t help overreacting to Sequoia’s RIP Good Times memo…

Number of venture deals, US & Europe Q4 2009

More deals for similar total money means less cash per comany…

VC Investment Europe by country Q4 2009

Overall, across the whole of Europe, venture investment levels were ‘steady’.

VC Investment UK & France Q4 2009

But UK and France, historically the core engine of European venture investment, has slipped back.

Andrew Banks, CalibreOne Partner in London said, “In EMEA the level of activity experienced in Q3 2009 was sustained in Q4 2009, despite the average investment value decreasing. However, the reality is that more early stage and growth businesses have secured funding than at the start of 2009. This indicates a positive upward trend for both investors and entrepreneurs in the region and is matched by a strong sentiment in the market that the bottom has been passed and a track back to growth has begun.”

To view our report on the previous quarter’s numbers, go here.

To download the data in a spreadsheet, go here: BLN Charts and CalibreOne Index numbers 2004-2009