Europe

Europe's Venture-Backed IPOs and American Exchanges

Last month, my friend Nicolas Colin, a Director at The Family, described Europe’s tech IPOs as “boring” in a newsletter. Among other points, Colin argues the need for a deeper ecosystem that links Europe’s entrepreneurs with capital markets. Large IPOs are a big part of this. A debate over the veracity of Colin’s claim spilled into social media, which focused more so on what one considers “boring” than anything else. Word choice aside, I presume that by “boring” Colin meant “small.” On that, he has a point. In both a game of averages and outliers, many of Europe’s most valuable startups have in fact looked to American exchanges for public listings.

Silicon Valley VCs are investing more in European startups

Silicon Valley investors are growing increasingly interested in Europe. That’s the main takeaway from this Sifted Chart of the Week. Last year was a record year for fundraising by European startups with €20.5bn (£18.1bn) spread over more than 3,300 deals. And it came with an increasingly US flavour.