Which VCs really are still “open for business”?

Medium posts, twitter threads, whispers and anecdotes; there’s been so much chat about which VCs are or are not still “open for business” – i.e. participating in funding rounds – that we thought we’d look into it.

For those that missed it, the economic upheaval sparked word of a large-scale retreat by VCs from startup funding. There were horror stories of people pulling out of deals and tearing up term sheets. While these more dramatic stories seem thankfully to have been the exception rather than the rule, VC behaviour is understandably changing. So first here’s a quick summary of the landscape as it stands:

  • Everyone’s saying they’re still open for business, to maintain in-bound dealflow
  • Many VCs will be prioritising support and funding for their portfolio companies
  • Where deals are going ahead, investors may take their time, or cut the cheque size
  • Equally, European VCs have more dry powder than ever before, having raised over €20B in 2019 and 2020 alone, and European governments are pitching it with significant co-investment schemes (more on that in our European Startups report)

If you’re looking to raise funding for your startup, investors still have money to spend on good propositions, and having completed the most deals since Coronavirus came to Europe, these VCs might be a good place to start.

Here are the 21 most active European VCs since 1 Feb 2020.

VC Fund All deals since
1 Feb 2020
(Europe)
Follow-on deals
Speedinvest 16 5
High-Tech Gründerfonds 12 4
Accel 10 5
LocalGlobe 9 4
Maven Capital Partners 8 1
Index Ventures 8 5
Global Founders Capital 8 6
HV Holtzbrinck Ventures 8 8
Idinvest Partners 7 3
Octopus Ventures 7 3
Creandum 7 5
Kima Ventures 6 1
Seedcamp 6 2
Lakestar 6 3
Partech 6 4
Almi Invest 5 0
Bayern Kapital 5 0
Investiere 5 1
Entrepreneur First 5 3
Notion Capital 5 3
btov Partners 5 4

 

Follow funding rounds on Dealroom

Since funds may be looking to prioritise the runway of their existing portfolio, deal count alone won’t show the whole picture. As always, a significant number of rounds are “follow-on” rounds, i.e. not the first round of investment an investor has made into a particular startup. Of the funds listed above, here are ones with the biggest proportion of deals directed at new prospects.

 

It’s worth remembering that VC deals are a lagging indicator – many deals completed at the start of the year will have been in the works for weeks or months, before the world turned on its head. But as the year unfolds, it will become clearer who’s putting their money where their mouth is.

Follow funding rounds on Dealroom