VCs on tour

19 October 2007

What would you give to get in front of EURO10bn worth of venture capital in one room, including big names like Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures, Pond Venture Partners, Quester and many more?

The English Tech Tour is currently flying a band of influential investors around the country (in a private jet, of course) to meet with entrepreneurs. Competition was certainly acute among start-ups for a place on the tour - workshops on the first day were packed and the Gala dinner full up. One London company we spoke to was even forced to make their pitch at 6.30am in Manchester as the entourage snaked their way out of London, north via Cambridge, before heading back down to Reading.

The idea behind the Tech Tour is to pull together the brightest young technology start-ups in a particular region and let them loose on a select band of top investors. It takes the legwork out of finding companies for the investors, who see a bunch of pre-qualified candidates in a whistle-stop 48-hour tour. But it also makes it easier for the investee, who avoids having to set up their own investor roadshow and spend months visiting them all. Keep in mind though, that this sort of event is a bit like a speed dating arrangement - you still have to go through the long courtship that follows.

There's no doubt these type of events can work - and in Keith Arundale, the former PWC VC programme boss and author of 'Raising Venture Finance Capital in Europe', they've got the right man to lead it. He knows venture capital inside out and is keyed in to what makes for a good deal. With recent tours to Spain, Switzerland and Scotland, they seem to be gathering momentum too.

So the only question is - why doesn't it happen more often? The last English Tech Tour was in 2003, and while we appreciate that these things are cyclical, a lot of worthy investments have come and gone in the intervening three years.

By David Longworth