350 million euro sought at EIF forum
The fourth European Investment Forum (EIF) took place from 5 to 7 November, during the IST2000 event in Nice, allowing 50 companies to present their business and investment propositions to 400 international investors, analysts, corporations, advisors and the media. The event is promoted by the European Commission's Information society technologies programme, and aims at promote eEurope. Entrepreneurial technology companies from 12 European countries are offered the prospect of accessing venture capital and expanding valuable networks. Some of the industry's well known figures, for example Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Information Society, Enterprise; Helmut Schon, managing director of WestLB Panmure and Philippe Grand, managing partner of Ernst & Young took part in presentations and moderated sessions. Over the two days, 50 individually selected 'tech ventures' each made a one minute presentation intended to lure investors to their company's full presentation in the parallel sessions later on. Full presentations were a chance to introduce the company, its products, management team, market potential, growth ambitions and investment needs. Some 350 million euro is being sought by the 50 ventures, an average of 7 million euro per company. Technologies represented range from B2B and B2C online market places, telecoms, datacoms and media technologies to core Internet technology, broad range software and wireless applications and solutions through to robotics, radar, security and navigation tools.