US firms have traditionally been the biggest participants in venture deals, but non-US venture investment is growing.
United States
Venture capitalists invested some $6.6 billion in 797 deals in U.S. during the third quarter of 2006, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data by Thomson Financial.
A recent National Venture Capital Association survey found that majority (69%) of venture capitalists predict that VC investments in U.S. will level between $20-29 billion in 2007.
Canada
Canadian technology companies have attracted interest from the global venture capital community in part as a result of a generous program of tax credits for scientific research and development (SR&ED). These tax credits are only available to Canadian controlled private companies (CCPCs). A CCPC must be incorporated in Canada. This creates a tension with many U.S.-based investors, since Canadian tax laws contain irritants that have historically made exits from Canadian companies difficult for U.S.-based venture capital investors.
Canada also has a fairly unique form of venture capital generation in its Labour Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations (LSVCC). These funds, also known as Retail Venture Capital or Labour Sponsored Investment Funds (LSIF), are generally sponsored by labor unions and offer tax breaks from government to encourage retail investors to purchase the funds. Generally, these Retail Venture Capital funds only invest in companies where the majority of employees are in Canada. However, innovative structures have been developed to permit LSVCCs to direct in Canadian subsidiaries of corporations incorporated in jurisdictions outside of Canada.
Europe
Europe has a large and growing number of active venture firms. Capital raised in the region in 2005, including buy-out funds, exceeded €60mn, of which €12.6mn was specifically for venture investment. The European Venture Capital Association includes a list of active firms and other statistics. In 2006 the top three countries receiving the most Venture Capital Investments were the United Kingdom (515 minority stakes sold for €1.78bn), France (195 deals worth €875m), and Germany (207 deals worth €428m) according to data gathered by Library House.
European venture capital investment in the second quarter of 2007 rose 5% to 1.14 billion euros from the first quarter. However, due to bigger sized deals in early stage investments, the number of deals was down 20% to 213. The second quarter venture capital investment results were significant in terms of early-round investment, where as much as 600 million euros (about 42.8% of the total capital) were invested in 126 early round deals (which comprised more than half of the total number of deals).
India
The investment of capitalists in Indian industries in the first half of 2006 is $3 billion and is expected to reach $6.5 billion at the end of the year.
Venture Capital Fund
The Reserve Bank of India, in regard to foreign exchange management act, frames the policy. The regulations of RBI for venture capital funds are that a SEBI registered venture capital fund investor can invest with the general permission of the RBI into Venture Capital Fund or Indian venture capital undertakings, according to the rules and regulations as specified by RBI notifications from time to time. In income-tax act 1962 venture capital fund consider as a pass through entity & not taxed , but income from this is taxed in investers hand
China
In China, venture funding more than doubled from $420,000 in 2002 to almost $1 million in 2003. For the first half of 2004, venture capital investment rose 32% from 2003. By 2005, led by a wave of successful IPOs on the NASDAQ and revised government regulations, China-dedicated funds raised US$4 million in committed capital.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, venture funding has been increasing rapidly as Vietnamese overseas returnees and Vietnamese ex-managers of multinational companies increasingly establish new companies with ambitious growth plans. Firms such as Mekong Ventures, IDG Vietnam Ventures and DFJ-VinaCapital have pioneered investments in seed-stage and start-up stage companies in Vietnam. The $20 Million Challenge is Vietnam's first business plan contest for local entrepreneurs
