For the first time, the awards, which are presented jointly by investment bank GP Bullhound and multi-platform media business Vitesse Media, included nominations from mainland Europe.

The sale of open-source database developer MySQL to Sun Microsystems garnered the Exit of the Year Award for Balderton Capital, Index Ventures (which also won VC Fund of the Year) and Scope. Balderton Capital partner George Coelho was also recognised for his renewable energy investment vehicle, Good Energies, with the Outstanding Contribution Award.

Winners from across the Channel included German government-backed High-Tech Gründerfonds, for Equity Gap Fund of the Year, and French-based private equity firm AGF, for VCT/FCPI of the Year.

Other winners were Brown Rudnick for Service Provider of the Year, Hotbed for Private Investor Network of the Year, Simon Cook of DFJ Esprit for VC Personality of the Year, Adconian for Deal Envy of the Year, and Solar Integrated Technologies for Jon Moulton’s Triumph over Adversity Award.

Manish Madhvani, partner at GP Bullhound, comments, ‘Particularly in these turbulent and uncertain times it is great to see how entrepreneurs and VCs have not been deterred by the challenging environment.’

The event was attended by 600 entrepreneurs and VCs and award winners were chosen by a judging panel including former British Venture Capital Association chairman Wol Kolade and Vitesse Media CEO Sara Williams.