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  • 3i repeats its exit from early stage, now to the FT

    Mike Butcher

    Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

    Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

    Nice to see the Financial Times catching up on a story I first broke in January and confirmed in February, namely that private equity house 3i is abandoning early-stage investing in start-up companies.

    It’s a hard fall. In early 2000 it managed 750 technology investments valued at £2.4bn ($4.8bn) – half its portfolio – and was seeking to compete with the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. By September 2007, its VC assets had fallen to £734m, less than a tenth of its total portfolio.

    I hope this is not some kind of attempt at a press relations strategy to presage a pull-out from its few remaining portfolio startups, like Taptu.

    N.B. Kudos to The Guardian for recognising the scoop.

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