European Venture Capitalist: YL Ventures
September 17th, 2007
Its good to see the VC culture developing rapidly in Europe. More and more Venture Capital funds are focused on or based in Europe while keeping close links to Silicon Valley. Most of them have a specific niche they like to invest in although some of the bigger ones invest in variety of fields.
I recently chatted with Karl Allmark, an associate at YL Ventures. YL ventures is headed by Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf, John G. Quigley and Boaz Misholi. The company invests in companies based in the mobile, media, internet and similar markets. They typically invest $ 0.5m to $ 2m to get the company accelerated and usually look at an exit within 12-18 months at an exit of $20m to $50m, which, as Karl explained is the less risky route. Instead of looking to make a profit on 1 in 10 companies with $100m-$1bn ventures, YL Ventures is looking to get 6 in 10 companies to make a profit. This increases the chance for a company to make a decent exit.
Their value add, apart from the investment, is the large network they have. As Karl explained, “We have links with some of the major brands, the Yahoos, Googles of the world…”. Obviously links with these brands not only help the company grow but, possibly introduce them to potential buyers.
Who are they looking for ?
YL Ventures are looking for entrepreneurs in Europe who have a product which is near Version 1. The investment is aimed at taking the product to market. Typically investment is made in two stages starting with something around a figure of $0.5m first round and then $2m second round.
Entrepreneurs should have a product which is proprietary, has some sort of IP involved and has a barrier to entry for competition to not enter their domain. Companies don’t necessarily have to be profitable while pitching to YL Ventures. A typical Web 2.0 where the value is in the content is not something YL Ventures usually invest in. One thing Karl specified, is that YL Ventures would not normally help entrepreneurs with an IPO, although they might have contacts who they could connect you with.
History of YL Ventures Founders
It’s obvious from their portfolio that this fund has a good mix of entrepreneurial and VC knowledge:
Yoav has 15 years of high tech and business development experience. He founded ExchangePath, a credit-card based micro-payment and peer-to-peer online payment system. ExchangePath was acquired by internet conglomerate CMGI for over $25 million. He also developed critical authentication software for ICQ.
John has been a principal investor in the private equity and venture capital businesses for over twenty years; he is a founder and one of the two managing partners of Nassau Capital, the independent firm which was established in 1995 to manage the private investment program of the Princeton University endowment.
Boaz is co-founder, ex-co-chairman and co-CEO of Comverse Technology (NASDAQ: “CMVT”), a telecom software leader that reached a valuation of €20 billion at its peak.
So if you have a venture you think fits these criteria. Get in touch with them now. They have offices in both Netherlands and Israel.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:59 am
[…] Jeff Clavier wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMore and more Venture Capital funds are focused on or based in Europe while keeping close links to Silicon Valley. Most of them have a specific niche they like to invest in although some of the bigger ones invest in variety of fields. … […]