European private equity and venture capital fundraising reached €45.6 billion in the first half of 2018, a 40% increase on the second half of last year, according to new data from Invest Europe.

This figure makes it the third highest six-month period since 2007, according to the European private equity and venture capital association. Invest Europe CEO Michael Collins will present the data on Friday at Invest Europe’s Venture Capital Forum in Paris. At this annual event, institutional investors meet the venture capital fund managers backing Europe’s innovative global leaders of the future. Venture capital investment in European start-ups surpassed €3 billion, reveals the new data, in the highest half-year result since 2007.

eFront, the leading financial software and solutions provider dedicated to Alternative Investments, has published its latest Quarterly Private Equity Performance report, showing that LBO performance has fallen for three straight quarters from its 10-year high in 2017.

Key findings:

• After reaching a peak of 1.49x in Q3 2017, the average return multiple achieved by active LBO funds has continued its retreat, back to the level of Q2 2017, at 1.45x.
• Despite the fall, active global LBO funds have outperformed the average of 1.3x achieved between 2009-2018 by 0.15x.
• The dispersion of performance between the top and bottom funds has stabilised at 1.34x, following a general trend towards a lower dispersion of returns, equating to reduced risk.
• Q1 2018 recorded a sharp decrease of the average time-to-liquidity, to just 2.63 years.
• In terms of vintage years, 2009 and 2014 are so far delivering strong performance, while 2010 and 2013 are more subdued.
• Overall, the performance of US funds stands above or on the long-term average, while Western European LBO funds show a more volatile performance.

New research now offers a unique road map for all emerging and start-up hedge fund managers as they make their way to $1bn AUM. This has been achieved byanalysing the path to growth and crucial insights of larger, more established managers who blazed a trail in building billion-dollar hedge fund businesses.

Produced by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), alternative prime broker GPP and Edgefolio, ‘Making it Big’ is informed through an industry wide survey and a series of roundtable discussions posed to asset managers and industry allocators representing an estimated $500bn in total hedge fund AUM. Hedge fund representation in the report includes responses from 155 managers and, crucially, also reflects the opinions of 60 hedge fund allocators, accounting for approximately $89bn.

The latest Fintech M&A Market Report from international technology mergers and acquisitions advisors, Hampleton Partners, reveals that the fintech sector reported 141 transactions in the first half of 2018, with a total disclosed transaction value of nearly $40 billion ($39.3 bn), more than 26 percent up from the prior half year. 

Beauhurst has added a new hub to its website which will tracking every UK startup with a billion-dollar valuation in one easy to reach page. They ranked by the date they reached such a valuation, meaning you can now see how the club has grown over time. 

$1b startups are the pinnacle of the UK's startup ecosystem. Of the 20,000 businesses who have fulfilled our triggers for high-growth since 2011, just 14  have achieved such a high valuation. Beauhurst has publlished its up-to-date list of UK unicorns. 

Beauhurst has analysed the UK's leading angel networks. They have defined what makes an angel network stand apart from other types of investors, such as venture capital firms, private equity funds, and crowdfunding platforms. These collections of wealthy individuals play an important role in several localised high-growth ecosystems, such as Cambridge and Scotland. 

State Street Global Exchange has released the results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index® (ICI) for September  2018.

The latest Healthtech M&A Market Report from international technology mergers and acquisitions advisors, Hampleton Partners, reveals how Big Data is fast becoming the common currency that lies at the heart of high-value business models in the healthtech sector.

In addition to booming strategic investment in the sector, the first half of 2018 saw record private equity investment and five multi-billion-dollar deals, pushing the total disclosed transaction value to $13.4 billion with a 30-month trailing disclosed EV\EBITDA ratio in excess of 16x.

Download the full Hampleton Partners Healthtech M&A Market Report: https://hampletonpartners.com/healthtech-report-2018

Busyness is often thought of as a modern day affliction, but it can also help you delay gratification and make decisions that benefit you in the longer-term, according to new research from the global business school INSEAD.

IP Group tops Beauhurst's list of the top investors of Britain’s university spinouts since 2011 .  

Scottish Equity Partners has been named as one of the world’s most consistent, top performing venture capital fund managers by Preqin, the data and intelligence specialists for the global alternative assets industry.  

See the full rankings here.

Angel investment is one of the most notable avenues for capital in the UK. Business angels tend to invest in businesses who are either in the early stages of their growth or in established companies seeking to achieve expansion, in return for equity shares.

Aside from the capital, angel investors offer a wealth of experience and have access to a depth of valuable contacts from a range of industries. Their value is signified by a study conducted by ‘Oxford Economics’, who found businesses that were backed by angels between 2010 - 2015 boasted an astonishing turnover of over £9 billion and contributed £4.5 billion to gross domestic product (GDP).

Interestingly, research conducted by ‘Company Check’ discovered that from 3,000 business owners and entrepreneurs, 38% believed a business plan was the paramount deciding factor in an angel’s intention to invest in a business. After a business plan – they thought sales figures (27%), the founder (15%), business idea itself (9%) and then the economy (8%) were focal in a business angel’s considerations.