European startups have had a impressive few months, raising over £2.8bn from venture-capital investors in the second quarter of 2014.
According to data from Dow Jones VentureSource, it is the highest total in over a decade. It was back in 2001 that we last saw such high levels of investment.
Investment activity in the UK was the highest across Europe, with British companies raising over a quarter (28%) of the total funds.
British fintech
There were notable successes for British fintech which saw a number of substantial VC investments.
In the last three months, Transferwise raised $25m led by Richard Branson, Funding Circle raised $65m and Nutmeg raised $32m.
Index Ventures was the busiest firm in Europe. The company completed 16 deals, which included both the aforementioned Transferwise and Funding Circle investments.
Coming of age
We shouldn’t expect investment to slow down any time soon.
Index recently raised a $550m fund and Balderton Capital, another of Europe’s most active VCs, announced a new $305m fund for European startups.
The record level of investment marks a coming of age for British and European startups.
In the second quarter of 2014, property website Zoopla floated for over $1.5bn and takeaway company Just Eat saw share prices soar on the first day of trading.