Overall European venture capital investment rebounded during the first quarter of 2008 to €1.40bn, compared to €1.26bn last quarter and €1.41bn in Q3 2007. By taking into account any future late reporting of Q1 deals, 2008 investment levels appear on an even stronger recovery especially in comparison to the US, which has seen a decline.

The UK saw its venture capital investment grow by 80% in Q1 2008 from Q4 2007, the highest level of investment since Q1 2006. Some of the other countries that also saw an increase in their venture capital investment over the period include Israel which grew by 124% from €124m in Q4 2007 to €290m in Q1 2008 and Sweden grew by 93% over the last quarter from €34m to €68m.

The most active investor in the quarter was High-Tech Gründerfonds Management, the German-based High-Tech investor, with nine deals, with Balderton Capital, Intel Capital and Scottish Enterprise Fund in joint second with seven deals each. Index Ventures was the top investor by syndicated amount invested in Q1 2008, taking part in three deals totaling €83.9m.

The top exit of the quarter was the sale of Sweden's MySQL to Sun Microsystems in January for €675.6 million. MySQL's eponymous offering is the world's most popular open source database software.

Europe’s top deals

The largest deal of the quarter was the €63.9m investment into UK based Spinvox, a mobile phone services company claiming to be the first to offer speech-to-text services for mobile phones. Its patented technology allows for voicemail messages from mobile phones to be translated into text.

Just missing the top spot was the €63.7m investment into modu, the Israel based company developing the modu mobile phone handset which is designed to be compatible with an array of ‘jackets’ that can change both the look and functionality of the phone. The company benefits for a seasoned team comprised of executives and managers from various aligned industries including msystems, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Qualcomm, Intel, SanDisk, Symbian, Marvell and Orange.

German based Adconion Media Group was the third largest investment of the quarter, receiving €53.9m, and the biggest investment in the Mediatech sector. Forth biggest investment, and the largest in Cleantech sector, went to Odersun, also based in Germany.

Europe’s “big four” remain a dominant force

Europe’s venture scene is dominated by a small number of countries taking the lion’s share of investment with Library House data pointing to a consistent “big four” in Europe. Q1 2008 demonstrates a continuation of this pattern, with the top 4 countries for venture investment remaining the UK, Israel, France and Germany.

AM-Pharma, the Netherlands-based biopharmaceutical company, has raised £5.6m (€7m) in the first closing of its £15.9 (€20m) series C funding round, from Forbion Capital Partners and Inventages Venture Capital. AM-Pharma is developing pre-clinical and clinical therapeutics to treat inflammatory diseases and infectious diseases. The funding will be used to further the company's phase II efficacy and safety data for its two products: Recombinant Human Alkaline Phosphatase and Selective Immune Response Amlifying peptide hLF1-11.

Ocean Outdoor, the UK-based large scale, outdoor advertising company, has raised £5.5m (€6.9m) in first round funding from Smedvig Capital. Ocean Outdoor specialises in securing high-profile advertising locations in London, Glasgow and Manchester. The funding will be used to expand the company's site location portfolio.

Angioslide, the Israel-based developer of platform technology for interventional cardiology, has raised $8.6m (€5.5m) from Itochu Corporation and existing investors, Ofer Hi Tech and Viola Partners. Angioslide has developed the Angioslide eXtra angioplasty balloon catheter, which is designed to offer balloon angioplasty with embolic particle capture. The funding will be used to ramp up sales and marketing in the US and Europe, and for the development of expanded market applications.

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Pasporte, the UK-based provider of ICT outsourcing solutions, has been acquired by Telinet for £11m (€13.9m). Pasporte specialises in offering mid-sized companies a range of enterprise-level hosting, applications and network solutions, including: design, project management and 24 x 7 proactive support. The acquisition will enable Telinet to develop its strategy of providing Integrated Communications and Technology (ICT) managed services to medium sized businesses in the UK.

B-hive Networks, the US and Israel-based provider of service level control technology for IT infrastructure groups, has been acquired by VMware for an undisclosed amount. B-hive Networks has developed the B-hive Conductor, which provides visibility into applications (performance, usage and dependencies) running within virtualised and physical data centers. The acquisition will enable VMware to leverage the B-hive team and technology to offer service level reporting and performance management for applications running on its virtual machines.

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Real Time Content, the UK-based content creation and delivery company, has appointed Craig Calder to the position of chief marketing officer. Prior to joining the company, Mr Calder was chief marketing officer at Mochila. Before that, Mr Calder held a variety of marketing positions for companies including Thestreet.com and The New York Times. Whilst at The New York Times, Mr Calder was awarded the 2003 Punch Sulzberger Award for innovation and leadership in the business category.

Kontera Technologies, the Israel-based provider of In-Text contextual advertising and information services, has appointed Yaron Garmazi to the position of chief financial officer. Prior to joining the company, Mr Garmazi held senior financial positions at a variety of technology companies, including: Passave, which he led to acquisition; Ness Technologies, which he led to IPO; and Nogatech.

Wesupply, the UK-based provider of technology and services to supply chain markets, has appointed Stewart Oades to the position of chairman of the board. Prior to joining the company, Mr Oades was the group chief executive of Christian Salvesen, where he oversaw the sale of the business to Norbert Dentressangle in 2007. Before that, Mr Oades served as a member of the executive board at Exel and held senior positions at Heron Distribution and Safeway. Mr Oades is also a non-executive director of GS1 and a director of the Freight Transport Association.

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Miomi, the UK-based provider of online timeline tools, has informed Library House that the company is currently seeking to raise between £1.5m and £2m (€1.9 and €2.5m). Mr Jonny Crowe, the chief executive of Miomi, revealed that the company would use the funding to accelerate product development of the company's beta phase.

SMS Guru, the Germany-based text question and answer service provider, has revealed to Library House that the company is considering seeking further investment in 2009. Mr Frederik Fleck, the chief executive of SMS Guru, informed Library House that any additional funding would be used for international roll-out of the company's product.

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