Insights & Statistics: Europe’s Venture Capital Single Family Offices

venture capital single Family Offices statistics

Since venture capital investments are getting more attention from family offices, we were interested in the actual situation: which percentage of Europe’s single family offices are investing in the startup landscape, what are the hottest investment topics and what other interesting patterns occur? We took a look at our extensive European single family office database and provide you with some statistics.

Insight 1: 27% of Europe’s single family offices are investing in venture capital

In total, 106 of 388 European SFOs are into startup investments, what makes a share of 27%. An interesting observation is, that the younger the wealth is, the higher the likelihood is that the family office is investing in venture capital. An often observed scheme is that former entrepreneurs – who, for example, made their fortune through software companies – are also willing to invest in young companies. A good example are the SAP founders Hasso Plattner and Dietmar Hopp, who are heavily investing in software and biotech startups.

Insight 2: Only 10% of SFOs are NOT investing in software and technology

When we look at the 66 venture capital focused SFOs for which we have detailed information about their investment focus, we will find out that only 6 of them are not focused on technology and especially software startups. In detail, eCommerce startups, insurtechs and fintechs are getting the most attention. The American family office of the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar recently even spun-off its fintech investment arm into an own venture capital fund. Another hot topic are investments in young medtech and biotech companies. Rather niche topics from the family office investment side are food and “smart city” startups.

Insight 3: Family offices which invest in startups are way more digital than others

Single family offices are known for their secrecy and their mastery in blurring traces. Consequently, only few single family offices have own websites and are active in the world wide web. Quite different are VC-focused SFOs: 92% of them have their own websites, many of them even are active in social media. This makes sense from two different perspectives: as previously said, many VC SFOs are quite young and well-known to the internet. Some SFO founders even made their money through digital products and technology. Furthermore, venture capital investors have to show at least some presence to attract interesting deals.

Picture source: Ragnar Vorel

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