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June 13, 2005
European Open Source VC economy?
I'm hearing interesting things about the expanding (and I think that's an understatement) Open Source focussed venture capital availability in the US. This seems pretty obvious given the number of US based Open Source business startups that we've been seeing over the past months.
And then I polish my non-existent glasses and try and poke around for something similar going on in good old Europe. Surely with the wide adoption of Open Source being utilized by European corporations there would be some sign of either the availability of VC for this type of startup or tremors from companies about to leap into the limelight. Or are we going to leave it all to our pals from the Valley?
If so - how do I convince my wife to move? :-). She's away at the moment so I'm looking after the kids again (some of you may remember). I could be gone before she gets back <insert manic laugh>. Anyway, I digress.
I'd love to be proved wrong.
Later: I've just found details of the study that Hasso Plattner (yes, the SAP guy) released today. In it he cites research that proves my point (for Germany at least):
In 2004, only 26 German companies were provided with a total of 22 million euros for their seed phase. In 2000, at the peak of the technology boom, there were 272 companies where 388 million euros were invested in their early growth.
No, that's not a printing mistake - 26 German companies received seed-funding in 2004. Hasso Plattner aims to change that by launching HassoPlattnerVentures.
Posted by Matthew at June 13, 2005 07:31 PM