excerpt from article:
AN INVESTMENT COMMUNITY IS DEVELOPING IN THE U.K.
The most successful U.S. internet companies were funded by venture capital, in a world-renowned friendly
investment environment in California. The U.K. is now getting in on the act. Fletcher applauds initiatives
such as First Tuesday, a regular social gathering of investors and entrepreneurs, which brings the right
people together. Attending the events is also uplifting, as it is clear that the UK is developing a set of
people ripe to take forward a home-grown internet industry. The fact that the Financial Times saw fit to
feature the event, and McKinsey (the consulting firm) has chosen to sponsor it, shows that these things
are moving in the right direction.
Here is Fortunecity:
UK STRUCTURES DO NOT ENCOURAGE VENTURE CAPITALISTS AND OTHER INVESTORS TO
INVEST IN SEED AND START-UP HI-TECH COMPANIES
***** But there are still obstacles in the way of investment take-off. Nicholas Lovell, the Deutsche Bank
investment banker who recently floated FortuneCity (an internet community site), on the German Neuer
Markt, says that UK venture capitalists are avoiding seed and small companies as investment
opportunities. This is because they are denied what they crave the most -- a straightforward exit option to
market when their stakes have acquired value.*****
One reason is that the UK's weak AIM smaller companies index, unlike the US Nasdaq or German Neuer
Markt, is not aimed at high-tech, high-growth or even new companies but merely small ones. Companies
aspire to grow out of AIM, and so many companies are only taken seriously by analysts when they are big
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