KPN Ventures Research Series: European Blockchain Investment Landscape
1. European Blockchain Investment Landscape
a KPN Ventures Research Series Report – H1 2019
Robbert Kloosterman – Investment Associate
Michelangelo Pagliara – Investment Analyst
2. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 H1 2019
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Investments in European Blockchain companies
Prognoses amount invested H2 2019 Total amount invested (EUR)
Total number of rounds Prognosed number of rounds H2 2019
General overview: European Blockchain investments indicate signs of market maturity
There was an evident rush in the invested amount in 2018 as both the deal amount and the number of rounds
reached an all-time high. In 2019 both figures are expected to decrease however showing a historical rise in respect
to the previous years
3. Source: Dealroom.co category Blockchain. Undisclosed amount data is not available, for this reason, it’s left out
on the graph on the left Definition of stages: Seed: €0-1M, Venture: €1-5M, Growth: €5-25M, Later: > €25
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 H1 2019
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Investment amount per stage
Seed Venture Growth Late Prognosis H2 2019
Market development of European Blockchain investments
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 H1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Number of investmenent per stage
Seed Venture Growth Late Prognosis H2 2019
The overall market is maturing indicated by the influx of capital moving into growth and late-stage investments.
Venture investment has increased both in investment amount and the number of rounds with 2019 as an exception
4. 2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
H1 2019
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Deal count
Deals including investment fund(s) but no corporate investor(s)
Deals including corporate investor(s)
Deals with other types of investor(s) without investment fund(s) or corporate investor(s)
Source: Dealroom.co category blockchain
Other includes: accelerators, angels, angels funds, family offices, crowdfunding, service providers and users.
European Blockchain investment per investor type
The number of deals, including a corporate investor, increased even after 2018. However, the number of deals is
relatively low, but the total deal amount is significant, particularly in 2018, 2017 and 2016
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
H1 2019
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Deal amount
Amount of deals including investment fund(s) but no corporate investor(s)
Amount of deals including corporate investor(s)
Amount of deals with other types of investor(s) without investment fund(s) or corporate
investor(s)
5. Heatmap of the most funded European Blockchain startups 2014-H1 2019
80+
50+
30+
10+
150+
United Kingdom
France
The United Kingdom is on the top of the list with 173 deals followed by Germany
with 91 deals, Switzerland with 65 deals and France with 49 deals
Source: Dealroom.co category Blockchain, Key Blockchain deals of the largest hubs are shown on the map
Switzerland
Germany
6. European accelerators (partly) specialized in Blockchain
United Kingdom
France
Germany
Source: KPN Ventures analysis
The Netherlands
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands have
the highest density of Blockchain accelerators
7. Largest investments in European Blockchain companies
H1 2019
€ 0M €50M €100M
2018
2017
2016
Cryptocurrency transaction
Asset management
Banking services
Supercomputing
Financial institution
Hardware wallet
Trading platform
Crypto-infrastructure
Cloud Computing
Financial services
Trading platform
Trading platform
Source: Dealroom.co and Crunchbase category Blockchain
The most significant deals in terms of investment amount occurred in 2018
8. Most active investors in European Blockchain companies between 2014 and 2019
Investors Country # Deals Investment example Segment
25 Trading platform
6
Financial services
5
Bitcoin mining
5 Hardware wallet
American investors are investing heavily in the European based Blockchain companies
Public funding
25 Identity verification
9. Largest Blockchain exits in Europe between 2014 and H1 2019
Company DescriptionCountry Year Exit type Amount* (€M)Acquirer
Acquisition
Acquisition
65**
10**
Acquisition 3602018
Acquisition 1002019
2016
2019
**Firm valuation based on Dealroom.co estimates
Source: Dealroom.co category Blockchain
Trading platform
Trading platform
Payment management
Asset management
United Kingdom leads the way in terms of the biggest exits
10. Most notable global acquirers of Blockchain companies
Other Acquirers in Blockchain
Source: Dealroom.co and Crunchase data
2018Crypto exchange
2018Torrent streaming
App store 2019
Data & Analytics 2019
Ethereum wallet 2018
Payment platform 2018
Crypto exchange 2017
Acquisitions activities have grown substantially and are mostly performed by
scaleups and not incumbents mainly outside of Europe
11. Notable corporate venture capital investors per investment segments
Security Legal Fintech
Cryptocurrency Enterprise software Others
Many corporations are investing in Blockchain companies across all segments
12. The creation of consortia is a step forward in the adoption of Blockchain technology by
enterprises
A blockchain consortium is a collaboration between different players in an industry to accelerate the adoption of a
specific blockchain application, facilitating the sharing of verified data across participants
Source: ESG Intelligence, Ledger Insight
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Pre 2016 2016 2017 2018 H1 2019
New blockchain consortia founded
Prognosed number of founded consortia H2 2019
SectorConsortia Notable Participants/members
Communication
Blockchain Network
(CBN)*
Energy
Telecom
Insurance
Telecom
EnBW, Total, Centrica,
Equinor, Shell, Siemens
IBM, Softbank, Sprint
Achmea, Aegon, Allianz, AXA,
Generali, Deutsche Rück
Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom,
Orange, China Telecom
*Yet to be launched
Blockchain-infrastructure
Blockchain-infrastructure The Linux Foundation, IBM
(fabric), INTEL, SAP, Baidu,
Microsoft, Oracle, ING,
Bain & Company, Nomura
13. KPN Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of KPN, The
Netherlands’ leading telecom & ICT service provider. We aim to create
valuable partnerships with innovative European technology companies
providing access to capital, industry expertise, professional network and
customer channels.
KPN Ventures focusses on early growth-stage investments, series A/B. Our
investments typically range from 0.5 to 2.5 million euro for minority stakes,
building long-term partnerships, ultimately aiming for external exits, not
acquisitions.
Investments, among others: Minut, Wirepas, Actility, EclecticIQ, CardioSecur,
Sensara, Viloc, Sentiance, ZecOps, CUJO.ai, Cloudify and Cybersprint.
About KPN Ventures
Contact
Phone: +31 10 45 78 82 3
E-mail: kpnventures@kpn.com
Website: www.kpnventures.com
with support from data partners:
Amsterdam office
Teleportboulevard 121
1043AJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Rotterdam office
Wilhelminakade 123
3072AP Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Dealroom data per: 16-09-2019
13
The data sample used for the analysis is
composed of the information available from
Dealroom.co. Incomplete data points were
removed from the data sample. We acknowledge
the probability that the data sample is deficient.