Following the VC dollars overseas
A new survey says that Germany and Japan are commanding more influence among venture capitalists in fields like clean tech and telecommunications.
Venture capitalists say the United States still dominates in technology innovation, according to a new survey. But Europe and Asia are quietly excelling in fields like clean tech and software that could eventually pull more investments overseas.
Germany, for example, is becoming a new leader in clean technology, according to a survey of about 400 venture capitalists worldwide released Tuesday by Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association. The U.S. is still the more attractive investment opportunity in clean tech, but at least 43 percent of respondents recognized Germany for its expertise in solar photovoltaic and other green technologies.
(The study, which was conducted in March, didn't reflect hard investment dollars. Rather, it examined the attitudes of VCs.)
In the field of telecommunications, one-third of venture capitalists recognized Japan as the most attractive place for investment, just behind the United States. In the field of semiconductors, VCs said Taiwan was the leader in manufacturing chips. With regards to software, those surveyed named India as having the top technology, second to the United States, but ahead of United Kingdom and Israel.
More than half of the VCs surveyed said that they are investing overseas, and that number has gone up slightly from last year, according to executives from Deloitte and NVCA.
"While the U.S. isn't losing ground, the globalization of innovation is under way," said Mark Jensen, national managing partner of Deloitte's Venture Capital Services. "The rest of the world is finding out what they're good at."
