Fishing for VCs

Throw a line into the Thames and likely you could net a VC.

VCs in UK warn hundreds of tech companies could shut shop if the government can’t come up with a £1bn ($1.4bn) fund of funds to support the sector.

As stock markets are in effect shut for initial public offerings, it adds pressure on venture capital firms. They must rely on trade buyers to achieve an exit from their investments, or finance them for longer. More than a third of UK venture capital groups expect to write off at least three investments this year due to lack of follow-on funding, a survey by Populus of 80 members of the BVCA found.

The survey said that 86 per cent had found it hard to raise secondary rounds of finance for their companies in the past six months. A similar number said portfolio companies still in product development stage would survive less than a year on cash reserves.

In San Francisco, earlier it just took a walk down the Sand Hill Road to land a VC. In UK, you need a boat and little fishing break is all it takes; you may not land the money though :-)

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