Biggest China Venture Capital Deal

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China is one of the largest growing nations in the world. It is no surprise that China is superior at delivering great communication and partnerships with some of the biggest players in the market. With the internet on the rise, there has been no better time to take the lead in what is described as domination in the online market.

The top Chinese venture capital deal in the second quarter was also the largest venture capital deal globally. Many Chinese companies involved in venture capital deals are knock-offs of well known American companies, and that includes the largest deal involving 55tuan.com, valued at $200 million.

55tuan is among many Chinese companies trying to be the next Groupon, and the venture funding from a group led by CDH Ventures and Goldman Sachs will help 55tuan prepare for a US IPO. Lashou.com is another Chinese company on the list of big venture capital deals last quarter.

It could be described as a mix of Foursquare and Groupon, and the concept was attractive enough to raise $111 million from a group led by Milestone Capital Partners. That's on top of a previous round of financing for $55 million which has agreed upon several months beforehand.

Venture Capital Funding in SmartGrid Declines by Half in 2011

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As per the study by Mercom Capital Group LLC, the average Venture Capital Funding declined by about 50 percent from almost USD 15 million in 2010 to USD 7.5 million in 2011. The report revealed that the funds from Venture Capital amassed USD 377 million in 50 deals in 2011 as against USD 769 million in 51 deals in 2010.

The highlighting factor of the report was that though the number of transactions in the two years remained almost same, the funds collected from these deals was remarkably lesser. Also, the number of Venture Capital investors rose 92 in 2011 from 87 in 2010. Both these facts indicate that the investors are interested in Venture Capital funding, but are now becoming more risk averse. The leading market players such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, ABB and GE were the key drivers for Mergers and Acquisition during 2011.

iControl Networks topped the Venture Capital Deals with the contribution of USD 51.6 million. Other market players in the smart grid and energy management sector who became the part of these venture capital deals were SmartSynch ($25.7 million), Silver Spring Networks ($24 million), Gridpoint ($23.6 million), and JouleX, ($17 million).

Venture Capital investors who topped in 2010 continued their dominance in 2011 as well. GE with six deals, Emerald Technology Ventures with five deals and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with five deals were the leading investors in 2011 as well.

U.S. Tightens Purse Strings for Bank Loans to Europe

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The Federal Reserve has observed that the U.S. banks have tightened their purse strings when it comes to bank loans to Europe. The quarterly survey by the Reserve covered data from 51 domestic banks and 22 U.S. branches of foreign banks. The uncertain economic situation in Europe has done little to help the case as almost two-thirds of the banks had tightened standards on bank loans to Europe.
The banks are effecting this tightening by putting a cap on size of bank loans, demanding higher down payments and charging higher interest rates. According to the Feds, majority of the banks had shown slight relaxation in lending bank loans to Europe in the earlier quarters but the quarter for July-September has been marked by tightened lending.
A new trend was observed in midsize and larger firms where an increase in reports of weaker demands for bank loans has been observed. The weak economy has reduced the demand for bank loans with several small banks ready to give loans but unable to generate demand.