Venture capital summit in Sophia: the new trends

Candidates to the second fund raising, breakthrough of biotechnologies and development of the International mark the fifth edition of the IVCS, at the CICA, next December 3rd and 4th.

This year, the Venture Capital International Summit in Sophia Antipolis has received less files than the previous years. For this fifth edition, which takes place at the CICA of Sophia, next December 3rd and 4th, around 80 appliance files have been studied by the selection comity, as against more than 120 last year. But for the most of them, appliances were much more solid.Indeed, there is no more such thing as a unlimited start-up launching. Capital IT in Paris, which 6th edition will happen in November 6th and 7th, has experienced the same situation. Paris has noticed the end of Internet “pure players” (start-ups completely Internet), a relevant diminution of starting funds and the increase of biotechnological projects.These trends will be tackled during the summit in Sophia Antipolis, with 40 companies which names will be revealed next November 15th. The selection comity of the 5th IVCS (International Venture Capital Summit) has thus noticed three main trends in appliance files to this edition.The first one: more than 50% of companies present a file for a second fund raising , as against 10% for a starting fund raising. The second one: an increase by 19.6% of files in the biotechnological industry, which accounts for 22% of files this year; but the NICT sector is still one of the principal sector, with 65% of appliances. The third one: the international feature of the summit is strengthened this year with 22% of files coming from abroad.Another trend to put forward: investors will attend the summit (more than 400 participants are expected). As last year, capital-ventures, but also more and more corporates which want to associate some innovating start-ups to their strategy, will take an active part in the event. During these two days, workshops will allow the 40 selected start-ups to present their projects to investors. In the same time, some workshops and a Forum will deal with themes linked to today’s the venture-capital in France as well as in Scandinavian countries, the special guests in 2001. See the program on www.ivcs.org.