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Family money puts its faith in European technology

Reuters, London
SOME of Europe's wealthiest families are investing chunks of their cash in technology companies, bringing the benefits of long-term horizons to start-ups and filling a funding hole for the continent's fledgling Facebooks.
European family offices, the private investment houses of the super rich, nearly doubled their direct investments in companies between 2008 and 2014 to nine percent of total portfolios as low interest rates hurt returns elsewhere, according to a report by Campden Research and bank UBS.
That may not seem like a lot, but with average assets under management of $890 million, each European family office has around $80 million to play with for direct investments.
Many are using the cash to bet on tech, stepping in where venture capital is reluctant to tread.
"The sector is very important for them," said James Innes, a partner at London corporate finance house Chrystal Capital who consults over 300 family offices on early-stage tech investments.
"When families do their allocations on direct investing, they have accepted it is on the riskier side of life. They want things that potentially give you significant multiples on your cash. That's tech."
Pairing up with a rich benefactor brings
advantages for the start-ups. As investors, they have far longer time frames than private equity houses or venture capitalists, can make investment decisions more quickly and bring proven business acumen to the management of nascent companies.
"With a family office you don't have a time horizon. We like the long-term focus. It's great to have an investor who doesn't view going public as an exit opportunity, but rather a chance to buy more stock," said Pere Valles, Chief Executive of Spanish electoral technology company Scytl.
It is not just European family money.
Scytl received a $40 million cash injection from Vulcan Capital, the direct investment wing of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's personal holding company.
"We were approached by private equity groups initially, but when Vulcan Capital approached us we stopped right away," Valles said.
Start-ups now actively seek-out family wealth operations, according to Peter Newton, a portfolio manager at Campden Wealth who organises meetings between early stage med tech, clean tech and sports tech companies and potential investors.
"When you speak to the companies, they'll say T really want to find a family office to invest in me... that'll help us grow far better than a venture capitalist who wants to come in, make his money in four years then disappear,"' he said.