At European level, declines were recorded both for investment volumes (lower by 60.7%) and for the number of financings completed.
The volatile macroeconomic context triggered delays from both investors and founders in the process of fund raising rounds. A part of startups opted for “bridge”-type funding rounds and announced their intention to launch rounds at the end of 2023 or in 2024, while investors chose to support the companies in their portfolio.
13% of the TechAngels investors funded startups that were not included in their portfolio, 22% opted for follow on investments, 65% made no investments whatsoever in the first half of 2023, and just 11% target no investments at all in 2023.
“TechAngels’ internal assessment shows the availability of the TechAngels investors to double the amounts invested, until the end of 2023, with over EUR2 million being declared available resources by the members of the group, in the case that promising projects are identified. We notice a transition toward a new stage: we see a relative stabilization of the macroeconomice conditions, the inflation is decelerating, and the energy prices are somehow stable (…),” said Marius Istrate, President of TechAngels.
Health and the B2C solutions, regarding the personal life management options (finance, activities, fashion), each accounted for as much as 10% of the total screening solutions, coming second and third in the general ranking of propositions. During this period, it was noted overall an increased focus on sustainability, both in terms of calculations regarding the environmental footprint of businesses and the personal footprint (such as fashion, the selection of various food products, of durable goods and so on).