About 600 people from across the industry attended the ceremony which was held at London’s Natural History Museum and was organised by technology investment bank GP Bullhound and Vitesse Media, the parent company of GrowthBusiness.
There remained a strong local presence among the winners list, but there were a number of Germans who rightfully succeeded in carrying a trophy home with them. Here is the complete list of nominations and winners.
Venture Capital Trust of the Year
The nominations are:
British Smaller Companies VCT – YFM Equity Partners
Crown Place VCT (Albion Ventures)
Foresight Group
Maven Capital Partners UK
Octopus Investments
ProVen Growth and Income VCT
And the winner is … British Smaller Companies VCT- YFM Equity Partners
The judges felt YFM were the stand out fund manager in this category due to their impressive return to shareholders and high level of investment activity.
Equity Gap Fund of the year
The nominations are:
Dawn Capital
Fast Lane Ventures
Finance South East
High-Tech Gründerfonds
IQ Capital
NESTA
Northstar
Oxford Capital Partners
PROfounders Capital
Seedcamp
And the winner is … High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Grunderfonds are winners for the second time due to the extremely high level of investment activity and generating impressive exits in a difficult market.
Buyout/Development Capital Fund of the Year
The nominations are:
Advent Venture Partners
Baring Vostok Capital Partners
EQT Funds
Frog Capital
Gimv Buyout
Index Growth
Investcorp Technology Partners
ISIS Equity Partners
And the winner is … Frog Capital
The judges felt the shortlist was the strongest it has ever been in this category. They were blown away by Frog Capital’s three great exits including SiC selling for a reported €500 million. Although a small team the judges felt Frog delivered on a wide number of fronts.
Private Investor Network of the Year
The nominations are:
Ariadne Capital
Braveheart Envestors
Halo
London Business Angels
Seedcamp
Spintop Ventures
And the winner is … Braveheart Envestors
The judges were impressed to see a high level of innovation in this category and new players entering the market. They wanted to highly commend HALO for their great initiative and work in Northern Ireland. The judges felt Braveheart Envestors were worthy winners due to their high level of activity and excellent work in educating the angel community.
Cleantech Investor of the Year
The nominations are:
Albion Ventures Climate Change Capital
Demeter Partners
Environmental Technologies Fund
Foresight Group
Innogy Venture Capital
Octopus Investments
And the winner is …. Demeter Partners
The judges felt Demeter were the stand out fund in this category due to their impressive exits in the year and reputation for excellence in the wider community.
Entrepreneur of the Year
The nominations are:
Sophie Cornings & Holly Tucker – Notonthehighstreet.com
Gianluca D’Agostino – Neomobile
Gustavo García – BuyVIP
Mikael Hed – Rovio
Heiko Hubertz – Bigpoint
Dr Georges Karam – Sequans Communications
And the winner is … Heiko Hubertz – Bigpoint
Tthe judges felt Heiko Hubertz was a worthy winner of the entrepreneur of the year for driving Bigpoint to become one of the globally most successful players in its sector and achieving a stellar exit for its investors this year.
VC Personality of the Year
The nominations are:
Josh Bell – Dawn Capital
Mike Chalfen – Advent Venture Partners
Steven Coppens – Gimv
Russ Cummings – Imperial Innovations
Klaas de Boer – Entrepreneurs Fund
Nenad Marovac – DN Capital
Marina Treshchova – Fast Lane Ventures
Niklas Zennström – Atomico Ventures
And the winner is … Niklas Zennström – Atomico Ventures
The judges felt there were a number of impressive candidates this year however one name shone out from the crowd completing a large number of new investments and achieving another billiondollar home run.
Exit of the Year
The nominations are:
agri.capital – Frog Capital
Bigpoint – GMT Communication Partners
Biovex – SEP
BuyVIP – Active Venture Partners
Landis+Gyr – Bayard
Saffron Media Group – ProVen Growth & Income VCT & ProVen VCT
SiC Processing – Frog Capital
Yandex – Baring Vostok Capital Partners
And the winner is … Yandex – Baring Vostok Capital Partners
This was one of the most difficult awards to judge with a number of the shortlist achieving exits worth hundreds of millions of euros. However, Baring Vostok were worthy winners of the award for being the sole investor and for a number of years in Yandex which they floated at a valuation of $8 billion. The judges also wanted to highly commend SEP for the Biovex exit which has transformed the European Biovex industry.
Venture Capital Fund of the Year
The nominations are:
Atomico Ventures II
DFJ Esprit
Gimv
Index Ventures
Intel Capital
Nauta Capital
Northzone
And the winner is … DFJ Esprit
The judges felt DFJ Esprit were worthy winners due to their impressive number of exits over the past 12 months including the sale of HBI for $288 million. The judges were also impressed on how visible the DFJ Esprit brand had become in the European venture scene.
Outstanding Contribution
And the winner is ………. Sven Lingjaerde
For his long term contribution to the industry through setting up one of Europe’s leading firms in vision capital and establishing an industry benchmark through the tech tours.
