ABSTRACT
Although Italy had a highly successful year in 1999 in terms of fundraising, Spain was passed by the Netherlands and Sweden, far smaller economies, in the latest comparative statistics for venture capital activity, but these markets are still very dynamic, with rapid growth rates and strong prospects. By contrast, Greece and Portugal lag far behind major markets. Unfortunately, this may be in part due to their reliance on traditional ‘old’ economy small and medium sized enterprises as the foundations of production in their economies. But in large part it is due to heavily controlled regulation of the financial industry. In Greece, especially, one sees one of the most strictly controlled markets in Europe for capital and savings. These two markets are interesting despite their size, because they are the markets in Europe where SME concentrations are the highest, and yet in terms of VC activity they rank among the lowest.
