Highland raises €332m, Adam Elgar

More good news for the European technology scene; Highland Europe has raised a new €332m fund. Which again shows appetite building for investors to participate in the European technology sector.

The article references the "funding gap" with Fergal Mullen noting that there is six times more capital available in the US than in Europe. This gap is perhaps closing a bit but it has confused me for years. There is no shortage of capital (particularly in London) and certainly no shortage of experienced investors. Its great that significant steps are being taken to put this capital to work building tomorrow's European success stories.

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The new fund makes it one of the few investors in Europe with enough resources to participate in larger “growth” funding rounds in the millions of dollars, placing it in a small group that represents the region’s leading VCs such as Index Ventures, Accel Partners and Atomico. “The funding gap in Europe is very clear,” said Fergal Mullen, founder and partner at Highland Europe. “There is six times as much capital raised and invested in the US versus Europe . . . In the past, many European companies had to get on a plane and go to the US [to gain more funding] or they had enter a field that was oversyndicated, meaning too many players participating in a round.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e321d78-71ad-11e5-ad6d-f4ed76f0900a.html#axzz3oWvoGZXM