ABSTRACT
Whilst not part of the main study, the findings reported on in this chapter reveal important differences in the characteristics of VC funds in Europe and in the US, both between the top performing funds and the lesser performing funds in both regions and between the top performing funds in Europe as compared with the US. Only US VCs had funds which exhibited outlier performance in terms of achieving a return of greater than 50% IRR. Better performing firms in both Europe and the US use a home run, high-risk, “1 in 10” approach to making investments and engage a theme-based approach to spotting new investment trends. Newer UK firms, those formed in the last ten years, exhibited many of the characteristics of the better performing US funds, with the exception of the theme approach to investing which was more prevalent amongst US firms.
