1. Finding the right Early Stage opportunities
Nordic Seed Capital Summit 2012
Alex van Someren – Amadeus Capital
Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd is authorised and
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regulated by the Financial Services Authority

2. Amadeus Overview
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3. Introduction to Amadeus
• A leading European technology investor
– Invested in >80 companies, over 14 years, from seven funds with
commitments of £500m
• Longstanding sector focus in
– Mobile/Communications
– Software and Services
– CleanTech
– MedTech/Healthcare IT
• Backs high-growth companies to become leaders in large markets
• Builds successful global companies from start-up
• Has generated 5x plus returns many times
Our ambition is to be the leading European technology investor
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4. We invest across Europe…
Portfolio composition by country
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5. We are present in the Nordic region for >10 years
DK Software as a service behavioural marketing
S Ultra-low power video storage appliances
DK Content Delivery Platform for mobile operators
S Web content management software
S Automated camera surveillance service
S Hardware & software for managing broadband networks
FIN (Acquired by Seven) Software platform for mobile messaging
S Remote eye-tracking systems
S Optical data transport systems for metropolitan networks
S Processors for high speed network appliances
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6. Strong track record of achieving liquidity at IPO
US Exchanges Rest of World Exchanges
NASDAQ (2004);
NASDAQ OMX (2011)
merged with Illumina
NASDAQ (2006)
LSE (2006)
NASDAQ (2000)
AIM (2005)
LSE (2004)
LSE (2001)
LSE (2000)
AIM (2000)
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7. Strong record of trade exits through M&A
US Acquirers Rest of World Acquirers
Yammer (2012) Marvell (2011)
NVIDIA (2011) Lyceum Capital (2011)
Kopin (2011)
IK Investment Partners (2010)
Oracle (2010)
Samsung (2010)
Broadcom (2001)
MACH (2005)
entropic Microsoft (1999)
Portrait Software (2005)
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8. Finding the right early stage opportunities
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9. The Moments to Invest…..
Seed
Early Rev
 Expansion
..but sometimes timing of take-off is difficult to predict!
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10. What makes a great Seed investment?
• The three most important things are:
– Great Team
– Great Team
– Great Team
• Very large market opportunity
• Disruptive technology innovation
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11. What makes a Great Team?
• Serial entrepreneurs
– Experience counts for a lot
– Mistakes, disasters, scars are all helpful
– Potential for re-recruiting colleagues
– Established personal networks
• Keen younger people with poor sense or risk!
– You have to get experienced somehow
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12. We increasingly back serial entrepreneurs…
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13. What makes a Great Team?
• Serial entrepreneurs
• Diverse skills mix
– Aim is to cover major functional requirements
• I.e. CEO, CTO, VP Sales, VP Marketing, CFO
• But, could also be e.g. PhD + MBA
• ABCDE qualities:
– Aggression
– Brilliance
– Commitment
– Determination
– Ethics
• Luck!
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14. Market trends
• Very low capital intensity required to build businesses
– Possible for small, lean teams to succeed fast
• Global access from web/cloud-based platforms
– No national barriers; multi-currency payments
• Mobile access to online applications
– Always-on customer engagement
• Social networks are driving customer adoption
– Viral effects can drive up user numbers fast
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15. Growth & Internationalization
• European markets alone are generally not large enough
– We want to build $1 Billion businesses!
– Accepting this and planning for it is strongly advised
• Selling into North America & Asia is usually required
– Much larger customer base, often with greater spending power
– Different culture requires local engagement
• Sending inexperienced local team there is usually a #FAIL
• Examples mentioned earlier e.g. Russia, China
• Bridging from smaller countries into larger ones is effective
– We see this model a lot in Scandinavia
– We see this model a lot in Israel
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16. What value can a Seed VC add?
• Business model innovation
– Macro viewpoint helps to evolve new approaches
• Recruitment of team
– Plentiful supply of CVs
– Referencing for new hires
– No charge!
• Customer & Partner introductions
– Usually have good market knowledge
– Regular contact with potential product users
• Corporate Development
– Good existing networks with strategic corporates
• Exits
– Understanding the M&A, IPO environment
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17. Investment focus for Amadeus Seed/Early Stage
• Low-power computing/Internet of Things
– explosion of endpoints enables disruptive business opportunities
– impacts both macro (e.g. datacentre) and micro (e.g. mobile)
– enables the application of IT to new sectors such as CleanTech
• Software (including Cyber-Security)
– Cloud/Mobile generates hyper-growth opportunities
– low-capital-intensity enables rapid time to market
– excellent liquidity potential due to high-intensity M&A
• MedTech and Healthcare IT
– compelling need to shift from Treatment to Prevention & Diagnosis
– Engineering, Software & Social Networking applied to Life Sciences
– strong European capability and favourable regulatory environment
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18. Nordic Seed Capital Summit
Thank you!
Email: AvanSomeren@AmadeusCapital.com
Twitter: @alexvans
Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd is authorised and
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regulated by the Financial Services Authority