• European startups prepared for the worst

    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

    Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

    My colleagues over at TechCrunch.com have done some great number crunching and come up with a list of startups in CrunchBase that have raised at least $25 million over the past two years. The next two years are generally being referred to as another “nuclear winter” when startups will find it very hard to raise cash. They came up with a list of 160 startups, with Facebook topping the list with $455 million raised over the last two years (the bulk of its total $496M). However, although many of those firms are largely operating in Europe (even though their service may be global), they were not split out from the US firms. So I have done my best to weed out the “European” ones.

    Interestingly enough, there are two secondary ticket markets in there, Seatwave and Viagogo. SpinVox, at the top, is fast heading towards becoming a kind of over-arching platform for processing voice into text and putting it anywhere. Adconian plays into the fashionable performance ad space. JumpTap is in the hot mobile search space. DailyMotion and Videojug are in video, and increasingly professional content, while badoo has that multi-lingual social network juice. Only one mobile player so far – Nimbuzz.

    Please have a look at the original list and leave a comment if I have missed any out, as I am sure I have.

    1. SpinVox (UK) – $100M
    2. Adconion Media Group (UK/Germany) – $80M
    3. JumpTap (Israel) – $48M
    4. Sevenload (Germany) – $40M
    5. Dailymotion (France) – $34M
    6. Seatwave (UK) – $33M
    7. Truphone (UK) – $32M
    8. VideoJug (UK) – $30M
    9. badoo (UK) – $30M
    10. Viagogo (UK) – $30M
    11. Nimbuzz (Netherlands) – $25M
    • http://blog.mippin.com Scott

      This is a good starter for ten. But, to really work out who will still be around you’d also need to look at the company’s cashburn and their ability to conserve it relative to their funds in the bank; and, the ability of the company to find other opportunities to fund any gap before the financial tap begins to flow again.

      There is a silver lining for those that make it through the next eighteen months: you’ll be extremely well placed. You’ll have less competition because several competitors will have gone to the wall and others will simply not have been able to raise funding.

    • http://www.mann.com Peter Mann

      Germany-based Sevenload, announced that they 30 million euro investment from T-Venture which is a part of Deutsche Telekom. And 10 million euro from Burda. – Also 40 million euro.

    • http://www.leventure.com Cem Dalgic

      Mike, the fundings are committed but normally the money isn’t transfered in total. It’s possible that some startups could have problems. Pls check this list from Lehman as investor: http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/lehman-brothers

    • http://www.wecando.biz Ian Hendry

      As we know, there is not endless amounts of cash to fund businesses with no other revenue generation model and some very well funded startups went pop in 2001 when the markets went cold. So why is funding raised being used as a measure of anything?

      Let’s see revenue projections or even actual revenue for these guys.

      Ian Hendry
      CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
      http://www.wecando.biz

    • http://babyis60.wordpress.com Tim Panton

      Truphone have raised $32M in April 08, they are based in London

    • http://uk.techcrunch.com Mike Butcher

      Ian Hendry – publishing actual revenue for private companies is tricky – something you ought to know if “wecando.biz” actually knows anything about business.

      The rest of you – thanks for the constructive suggestions.

      • http://jenslapinski.wordpress.com Jens

        @Mike Butcher @ Ian Hendry

        as you both probably know, UK companies must report all sorts of things to Companies House. All private companies need to submit accounts at year end. Provided either revenue or balance sheets exceed a threshold amount, the accounts need to include revenue numbers, cash flow etc. Last time I looked, the threshold was £5.4m in annual revenue, can’t recall what the balance sheet had to say.

        Also, any UK-based company needs to file forms with Companies House that disclose exactly how much money was raised, from whom and when. The form is called 88(2) and can be purchased for any company at Companies House. I think it costs about £1 per form. Call +44 (0)870 33 33 636, tell them the number of the company that you are interested in and ask them to email you all 88(2)s that the company has ever filed. You may want to also include 88(3)s (shares in exchange for something that is not cash). They will charge your credit card and sell you everything you want to have.

        BTW: if you really want to do it right, you need to have a look at the articles of association to see what the preference structure on VC-backed company stock is.

    • http://www.wecando.biz Ian Hendry

      Mike, fair comment. But no one is under any obligation to disclose details of the funding they have received to the press either. So as both are voluntary for private businesses, why do they not report revenues or profit projections, figures that give a better indication of whether they’ll be around in 2 years time…?

      This lists are interesting to gossipers, but I question tehri real world value. Tech startups have the same real world commercial pressures as any business. Boo.com would have been topping such a list 8 or 9 years ago and what did that count for?

      Ian Hendry
      WeCanDo.BIZ
      http://www.wecando.biz

    • http://www.wecando.biz Ian Hendry

      By the way Mike, I am questioning them not issuing details on the meaningful stuff, not what you report on. I am absolutely sure that if any of the above shared details of how and how quickly they are going to make money then you’d be right on it and letting us have that information.

      The lack of disclosure of this sort by start-ups is a worry.

      Ian Hendry
      WeCanDo.BIZ
      http://www.wecando.biz

    • http://mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk Broadband Man

      What about companies that have:
      a: raised angel funding less than £1
      b: grown to break-even or profitability
      c: companies who have raised money but not declared the actual amount

      Surely these companies are also prepared to “weather the storm”?

    • http://inside.gruenderszene.de/2008/10/02/grunderszene-und-der-credit-crunch-erfasst-die-krise-auch-die-start-up-welt/ Gründerszene und der Credit-Crunch – Erfasst die Krise auch die Start-Up Welt? | Gründerszene

      [...] Kapitalgeberseite) dennoch eine gute Zeit. – ein second nuclear winter ist aber übertrieben (siehe Hypothese bei Techcrunch UK). Der Nucelar Winter 2001-2003 folgte auf eine hausgemachte Krise. Es ist also eher ein Nuclear [...]

    • http://www.3bill.com Martin Montague

      Good internet companies should be profitable and sustainable. Some of these newbies remind me of the boo.com days. Business first .com company second.

      No investment is a good investment IMO

    • http://uk.techcrunch.com Mike Butcher

      Disclosure of “how quickly” a startup is going to make money. Anyone got a piece of string?

    • http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/10/03/as-ebay-preps-layoffs-startup-investment-slows-its-going-to-be-a-cold-winter-people/ As eBay preps layoffs, startup investment slows – it’s going to be a cold winter people

      [...] to race ahead of the pack. So, good news for some, especially those who have money to play with over the next two or so years. There is also another plausible trends – eBay start with payoffs may start to swell the startup [...]

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