Venture Capital Survey 2022 (Invest Europe)

Summary

• The 2022 wave of the survey gathered anonymised responses from 443 venture capital fund managers across 362 VC firms.p.58
• Trade sales to strategic buyers represented 50% of total exits reported by surveyed VCs in 2022.p.27
• Primary listings outside the EU accounted for 58% of IPOs and sales of listed stocks.p.28
• Securing equity financing was identified as a top challenge for portfolio companies by 53% of respondents.p.31
• Valuation and deal terms saw the highest increase in importance among investment selection criteria, reported by 62% of VCs.p.42
• The average female partner representation in the investment teams of surveyed VC firms stood at 14.7%.p.68

Key insights

1. Fundraising sentiment among VC fund managers reached an all-time low since the EIF equity surveys were launched in 2018.p.5
2. More than 50% of surveyed VCs expect the exit environment to deteriorate further over the next year.p.11
3. A share of 69% of respondents expect entry prices of portfolio companies to decrease over the next 12 months.p.20
4. More than half of the trade sales to strategic buyers involved acquirers headquartered outside the EU.p.28
5. Germany, the UK, and France were ranked as the top three most promising European countries for VC investments.p.36
6. Management team, scalability of the business, and technology are the three most critical investment selection criteria for VCs.p.41
7. For 23% of VCs, securing equity financing has become a survival-threatening issue for their portfolio companies.p.44
8. Institutional investors such as banks and insurance companies showed a significantly lower willingness to invest in VC following the war in Ukraine.p.49