The BLN CEO Tales & Networking Drinks. The Emerging VC Investment Landscape

Our next BLN CEO Tales networking drinks event will be held in London on 18th March from 18.00 – 21.00. BLN CEO Tales networking drinks are an opportunity for an ever growing community of quality venture- and private equity-backed entrepreneurs, VCs, PE investors and corporates  to connect and share experiences with their peers.

The short talks from our speakers will address “The Emerging VC Investment Landscape”. Register here.

We are delighted to have secured speakers from three very active investors from Series A and beyond in the Cleantech, Life Science, Internet and Media sectors. Having closed funds of over E300 million between them in 2010 and with a commitment to investing in the UK, they should offer some high value insights into the opportunities that they are pursuing in the UK.

Speakers at, ‘The Emerging Investment Landscape’ are: Benoit Toulouse – Aster Capital, Andy Tsao – Silicon Valley Bank, Grazziano Seghezzi – Sofinnova Partners.

Benoit Toulouse, Investment Partner, Aster Capital.

Aster Capital is a leading venture capital firm backed by Alstom and Schneider Electric, global companies with combined revenues in excess of US$40bn. Aster focuses on early to later stage minority investments in innovative companies world-wide. Aster Capital has offices in France, China and Japan.

Benoit joined Schneider Electric Ventures in 2004. He began his career at Deutsche Bank in London as an M&A analyst. He worked on the sales processes for several international businesses with a special focus on media, technologies and telecom. Benoit is responsible for managing the investments in Agilence, Teem Photonics, Oxford Sensor Technologies, Casanova, Semisouth and Tiempo.

Graziano Seghezzi, Investment Partner, Sofinnova Partners

Sofinnova Partners is a VC based in Paris investing in early stage companies, corporate spin-offs and turnarounds in the technology and life sciences spaces, including cleantech. Of the 460 companies financed in Europe since 1972, over 40% have IPOed or been acquired. Over several financing rounds, we may commit up to €25 million in a company. We may also invest a few hundred thousand euros in a seed project.

Graziano Seghezzi invests in life sciences and originates technology deals across the UK. He started his career in venture capital working for Sofinnova Partners in 2001 and 2002 in Milan. He then joined Index Ventures in Geneva where he invested in biotechnology. Currently, Graziano is a board member of Glycovaxyn, Creabilis and Crescendo Biologics. |UK investments include MyDeco and Taptu.

Andy Tsao, Senior Vice President, Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Financial Group UK Ltd

SVB Financial Group UK is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, which provides financial services, specifically debt financing, to UK-based high-growth technology companies and private equity firms. SVB Financial Group UK is part of SVB Global, which provides business and consulting services to technology and private equity firms around the world from its offices in China, India, Israel and the UK. UK portfolio includes Adeptra, Agillic, Airwide Solutions, Lanner, Neverfail, Nimbus, OpenCloud, Polatis, SurfKitchen, Tectura, TouchLocal, TradingPartners, Volantis nd Zinwave.

Andy is responsible for building senior debt relationships with high-growth technology companies. Andy manages a portfolio of software and services companies from the seed stage through maturity. Andy routinely speaks about technology and finance at events around the world.

Previous attendees include: Advent Venture Partners, Amadeus Capital, Ambient Sound Investments, Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, Bauer Publishing, Coller IP Capital Ltd, Delta Partners, Eden Ventures, FF Private Equity, First Ventures, Frog Capital, IQ Capital Fund, Octopus Investments, Oxford Capital Partners, Scottish Equity Partners, SPARK, TLcom Capital Partners Ltd, TTP Ventures.

We would also like to take this opportunity to run video interviews with some of our attendees to feature on our forthcoming BLN video channel. As well as being a great way to showcase some of the most interesting high growth businesses in the UK, we hope this will offer some of our attendees an opportunity to spread the news about their businesses to a wider audience.

BLN events offer investors, corporate execs, CEOs and founders of high growth businesses the chance to meet other smart, busy people to share ideas, challenges, meet investors, customers and partners. This BLN discussion and drinks networking event will be held at the new law offices of Taylor Wessing, which enjoy some of the best views of the Thames in the City.

Networking and drinks from 18.00, CEO Tales at 18.30. Register here.

Attendance is strictly limited to qualified individuals – founders/CEOs of venture backed businesses, active angel investors, venture capital, private equity professionals, corporate executives empowered to work with high growth businesses, selected advisers and invited guests.

BLN events are run across the UK with further events in London, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol this year. See www.thebln.com/events for more details.

This event is supported by: