The rate at which venture funds are being given to European technology startups is slowing thanks to a concentration on power plays, Intel Capital, the chipmaker’s VC arm, has warned. While larger venture rounds are being given to individual startups, the total amount given across the board has remained the same so the amount given to everyone overall is slowing in real terms, said Ashish Patel, Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital UK MD (via ZDnet). But investors are now giving entrepreneurs more time and money, while the UK still constitutes 50 to 60 percent of European VC, he said.
Patel spoke of targeting investment in digital media and the mobile web: “[While] everybody wants to be connected to the web all the time, it isn’t happening, and one reason is the telecom operators don’t know how to function other than as telecom operators. 3G is too expensive, and [the telecoms system was] created for only so much information and [it] will freeze up if [it] gets too much. We see WiMax to the front [and] that is why we are putting a lot of energy behind it.”
Intel’s investments are primarily in the pure tech space but include Czech portal Centrum, micropayments provider FirstGate, broadband video outfit Aggregator Ltd and French games download service Metaboli.