There were 38 angel investment deals worth an aggregate EUR 180 million targeting Western European companies announced in March 2019, according to Zephyr, the M&A database published by Bureau van Dijk, compared with 60 such deals totalling EUR 366 million in February. Despite the decline month-on-month, value on a 12-month comparison improved 14 percent from EUR 142 million in March 2018; however, volume remained the lowest-recorded result since August 2018 (35 deals).
There are still seven days until the end of April, at the time of writing, but so far there have been 15 deals worth an aggregate EUR 27 million signed off this month. Value is trailing significantly behind the previous months of 2019 to date; however, a few single deals with higher values could be all that is needed to boost value for April. The largest deal announced in April so far was worth EUR 9 million and involved OpenGamma, a UK-based cloud derivatives risk analytics management software developer, raising funding from Accel Management Company, Dawn Capital, CME Ventures and Cristobal Conde. In total, 12 of the 15 deals signed off in the month so far had a disclosed value. Of these, seven featured companies based in the UK, including each of the top four, while Spain and Italy both featured twice. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden were each targeted in one deal in April.
One deal that stood out in the month under review was the fifth-largest to be announced in the year to date, or the highest-placed Western European target country by angel investors after the UK. This deal involved Portugal-based online pet food subscription platform operator Barkyn securing seed funding worth EUR 2 million from business angel fund Shilling Capital Partners, as well as venture capitalists All Iron Ventures, Indico Capital Partners – Sociedade De Capital De Risco and website development group Capital De Risco. This deal particularly stood out as there have only been a total 18 angel investment deals targeting companies based in Portugal announced since the start of 2006, with Barkyn accounting for the third-largest overall. Unbabel Unipessoal, an online translation platform operator, featured in the largest angel investment in a Portuguese target since 2006 as FoundersClub, as well as other venture capitalists Caixa Capital – Sociedade de Capital de Risco and Salesforce Ventures, to name a few, invested EUR 19 million in Unbabel’s series B round of funding.
The volume of angel investment globally declined month-on-month, while value also declined but remained particularly static when compared to February as 133 deals worth EUR 1,067 million were signed off in March compared to 149 deals worth EUR 1,279 million. In fact, value was the fourth-largest for the entire 12 months under review and was slightly higher than the EUR 1,049 million signed off in March 2018.
In conclusion, despite the value of angel investment in Western Europe being down month-on-month in March, the first quarter of 2019 is the highest-recorded first quarter on record as EUR 765 million was invested across 152 deals. If the opening three months is any indication of how the remaining three quarters will turn out, then 2019 could prove to be a record-breaking year for angel activity in Western Europe.
© Zephyr
A Single Portuguese Angel Investment was Announced in April
