Latest news with #Emea
Irish Independent
7 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Flood of funds for AI in the US leaves Irish start-ups scrambling
Global venture capital (VC) investment in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) shot up to $49.2bn (€42.5bn) in the first half of 2025, more than the $44.2bn total for all of 2024 and already double the 2023 full-year tally. However, analysis from global professional services giant EY shows the increasingly large sums are flowing to an ever-more concentrated pool of GenAI businesses, overwhelmingly in the US. EY Ireland's latest 'Generative AI Key Deals and Market Insights' study highlights how the sharp rise in overall deal value comes despite a near 25pc drop in the number of transactions in the first six months of 2025. In addition, early-stage VC funding rounds declined, and angel and seed rounds saw no change. That all points to a pattern of fewer but significantly larger deals hoovering up capital. The US accounted for 97pc of global deal value and 62pc of transactions. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) regions accounts for 23pc of volume but just 2pc of deal value. Of 39 global AI unicorns – private companies valued at more than $1bn – 29 are in the US, but just three are in Europe, EY said. US dominance in GenAI innovation and investment is widening EY Ireland's technology, media and telecoms lead, Grit Young, said GenAI is reshaping the investment landscape at an extraordinary pace – including a risk of squeezing out funding for small and mid-tier start-ups. 'Many high-potential start-ups find themselves in a difficult middle ground, too advanced for early-stage support, yet not quite large enough to attract global VC attention,' she said. Ireland has emerged as a strong adopter of AI, but many AI start-ups are struggling with access to capital and infrastructure. In Ireland, the funding environment for AI start-ups remains challenging, particularly in the €1m to €10m funding space, Ms Young added. Meanwhile, a relative handful of global-scale investments dominate the sector. Those have included SoftBank's potentially $40bn commitment to OpenAI, xAI's $10bn funding round, and major investments in Databricks ($5bn), Anthropic ($3.5bn), French start-up Mistral AI ($600m), and legal tech giant Harvey ($600m). EY's Ms Young said the pattern is clear. 'US dominance in GenAI innovation and investment is widening, with deal activity increasingly concentrated in North America,' she added. 'With increased regulatory divergence on AI between the US, Europe, China and beyond, it will be important for Europe to balance essential regulation with supporting and enabling innovation.'
Business Times
31-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Real estate investors in Europe hold back amid tariff turmoil
[LONDON] US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff threats have put a pin in what many hoped would be a year of recovery for European real estate markets. Commercial property sales were down 10 per cent by value in the second quarter and down 7 per cent in the first half of the year, according to data from MSCI. The number of active buyers and sellers in Europe also fell to the lowest level in more than a decade during the three months to June. US-headquartered investors were conspicuously quiet, with deals dropping by 29 per cent year on year in the first half of the year, according to MSCI's data, which tracks sales worth five million euros (S$7.4 million) or more. US funds such as TPG, Starwood, KKR and Ares were big buyers of European real estate in 2024. Blackstone, which is often a top buyer of European real estate, was ranked sixth by MSCI so far this year, behind the likes of Singapore's GIC, Norges Bank Investment Management and LondonMetric Property. 'The uncertainty that followed US tariff announcements in April meant it was natural some investors would pause from making real estate deals while they waited for clarity,' said Tom Leahy, head of real estate Emea research at MSCI. 'In contrast to the volatility in equity markets, real estate's illiquidity means lower deal volumes are often the first response to external shocks.' There were some bright spots, such as signs that Japanese investors are turning from the US to Europe. Japan-based buyers reached a record number of deals at the same time that Japanese investment into US real estate dropped by 45 per cent year on year. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up Australian superannuation funds have also been active. Aware Super has deployed about £500 million (S$858 million) into London offices via its joint venture with Delancey. However, data is yet to show a material increase in deployment by Canadian investors, said Leahy. 'I don't think we can yet tell a story that Canadians are fleeing America for Europe. The data doesn't support that yet, although it has been a topic in the market.' The UK has retained its position as the largest market in Europe, even as deal-making in the country slowed. Volumes dropped by 14 per cent year on year in the first half, compared to a 15 per cent rise in Germany, an 11 per cent rise in Sweden. While the French market was flat overall, there were signs of returning interest in its offices. Sales in the sector reached 3.1 billion euros in the first half of the year, with activity concentrated in Paris. The city's La Defense district saw more than 600 million euros of property changing hands, compared to around 200 million euros in 2023 and 2024. Blackstone is set to buy the Trocadero office building in central Paris for around 705 million euros, while Gecina has bought the Solstys complex from DekaBank for 433 million euros. Fundraising continues to be tough, with MSCI Private Capital Solutions data showing that investors committed very little to new equity funds in the first quarter of 2025. 'In general, it's been difficult because real estate has underperformed other private assets,' said Leahy. 'The transaction market has also been very slow, and that means that investors aren't getting their money back from prior fund vintages, so distributions have fallen substantially.' BLOOMBERG
Finextra
09-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
JPMorgan opens Fintech Forward programme in the UK
JPMorgan has opened applications for a new fintech accelerater programme for startups and business founders in the UK. 0 Developed in conjunction with EY, the Fintech Forward exercise is a 12-week in-person and virtual programme for founders who are applying technology to create scalable solutions within financial services. Candidate for the programme must have a live product demonstrating market traction, with annual revenues not exceeding £1 million. Successful applicants will gain access to expert mentorship from bank executives, tailored workshops with industry specialists, such as a two-day offsite at JPMorgan's technology centre in Glasgow, and opportunities to showcase their business to potential investors and commercial partners. Participants will also have the opportunity to take part in a sponsored trip to Slush in Helsinki, one of the world's most founder-focused events. Veronique Steiner, head of Emea innovation economy & head of Emea E-commerce, Technology, Media and Telecom at JPMorgan Payments, says, 'At JPMorgan Payments, our north star is to improve the payments ecosystem and transform the movement of information, money, and assets. We're actively encouraging applications from founders or business leaders who are overcoming obstacles to growing a business, including a lack of proximity to funding and networks, and are addressing the needs of underserved consumers, businesses or communities.'
The National
30-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Expansion push to help JP Morgan double its Middle East revenue by 2030
Middle East revenue for JP Morgan Chase has almost doubled in the past five years and the biggest US lender expects to grow it by another 50 per cent at least by the end of the decade, the bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa chief executive has said. With about 10 per cent yearly growth from 2020 until the end of last year, the Middle East is the fastest growing market within the bank's broader Emea business, Filippo Gori, who is also the co-head of Global Bank at JP Morgan, told The National in Dubai. The wider Emea was a key contributor to JP Morgan Group's total global revenue of $180 billion last year. 'From 2020 to 2024, it has grown substantially … faster than the rest of the region,' Mr Gori said. 'What I can tell you is that, over the next five years, we believe that the revenues will grow another 50 per cent from here, so the cumulative growth over a decade would definitely be of more than doubling the revenues.' The lender, which has been part of some of the biggest public floats, debt market and mergers and acquisitions deals in the Middle East over the past five years, has grown above the region's economic expansion rate and gained market share. JP Morgan is convinced of the longer-term growth prospects of the region, which Mr Gori said is a major beneficiary of capital movement in the Global South. Geopolitical headwinds and short-term macroeconomic turbulence have no bearing on JP Morgan's commitment to the region, where it has been operating for almost nine decades. 'So, we don't make decisions based on macroeconomic factors that could impact things in the next two years, three years, five years. Clearly, you always want to have a view around that, the headwinds that we could be facing,' Mr Gori said. 'But if we believe the narrative, and we do believe the narrative that this region is going to be one of the winners of the Global South and relocation of capital, then you just invest.' Expansion drive All lines of JP Morgan's business, whether banking and markets, or asset and wealth management, have their separate plans for growth and investments in the region. Payments as a product is also becoming an increasingly important part of the growth strategy in this part of the world, Mr Gori said. 'You enter a country, or invest in a region, you're there forever,' he said. 'And what we're doing here is that we're investing for the next 20 to 25 years.' International financial institutions, regional banks and global asset managers have either expanded their operations or set up new offices in the Gulf region in the past few years. They aim to attract more business from sovereign wealth funds, family offices, wealthy individuals and large institutional clients. The growing financing needs of Gulf nations to fund their respective economic diversification drives have also resulted in the expansion in corporate banking operations. The sustained momentum in regional initial public offerings and a robust rise in the debt capital market activity have supported the market. With the rapid rise of personal wealth, boosting the number of wealth managers has also been a primary focus for asset management companies in recent years. JP Morgan plans to add more than 100 staff across the Middle East, Mary Callahan Erdoes, chief executive of the firm's asset and wealth management, said earlier this month. The move will boost the bank's regional staffing levels to about 500 from the current 370, she told delegates at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Growth markets The UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's top economies, remain the biggest and main drivers of growth in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr Gori said. 'From the way we think about it, both markets need to grow. They have slightly idiosyncratic reasons for growth, which don't necessarily match,' he said. 'We need to invest both in our presence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and in our presence in Riyadh, if we want to capture those opportunities.' Plans are already in place to grow certain parts of the businesses in both markets, he said, declining to give specifics. Saudi Arabia is larger both in terms of equity and debt capital market activity, but the deals flow has been equally robust in the UAE. The IPO momentum in the region has driven the equity market business at a faster rate than the debt market, which is usually larger for banks around the world. 'This region has done better on ECM than DCM, for sure. So, it's kind of counter cyclical to the rest of the world,' Mr Gori said. Engine of growth Deal activity will continue to be driven by IPOs, while the rising financing needs of Gulf sovereigns for their multibillion-dollar development projects will also support future growth. While Saudi Arabia has hit some of its Vision 2030 milestones, it does not mean a slowdown in deal activity, Mr Gori said. 'I think it's business as usual in my opinion. Things come and go on as long as the narrative is correct and there is a trend, activity will come,' he said. 'There is the excitement for the region, and therefore we expect more deal activity to come.' While investment banking deals tend to be very visible and attract attention for a variety of different reasons, the actual engine of revenue growth is usually other lines of business, he said. 'Payments and markets, businesses are a larger proportion of the revenues than that of the investment banking,' Mr Gori said. 'The 50 per cent growth [over the next five years] will come from all the other lines of business from payment, securities, asset management market and so forth.'
Observer
11-05-2025
- Business
- Observer
Dealmakers hope on European revival as US stutters.
Top dealmakers are pinning their hopes on a revival of activity in Europe, with president Donald Trump's trade war having dampened expectations for US investment banking fees. At the beginning of the year, lawyers and investment bankers were anticipating that Trump would rekindle spirits and prompt firms to push ahead on pent up demand for M&A deals and equity fundraising. It hasn't worked out that way. The first quarter is disappointing, with global investment banking fees down by 10pc to $20.6bn for the first three months of this year, according to data provider Dealogic. The US has slipped by 7pc to $10.6bn for the period, while European fees have fallen even further, dropping 22pc to $4.6bn. But despite the numbers, top dealmakers in the financial district of London say that Europe is starting to benefit from the volatility that has hit the US. High hopes from Trump's election in November, when he promised to tame inflation, increase US exceptionalism and kick-start deregulation of the M&A market, have given way to caution. Global co-head of the alternative capital group at USB, Simona Maellare, said: 'In January, there was a lot of talk about animal spirit in the US and people were very negative on Europe. 'Three months later and those predictions have not come about because the M&A market does not like volatility. In Europe, sponsors are making progress, so we are seeing improved levels of activity. Overall, Q1 has been soft, but I am encouraged by the amount of activity in Europe, where we see big deals continue to happen.' Global co-head of the infrastructure and strategic investors group at JPMorgan, Guillermo Baygual, said that there was increasing optimism around European deal activity as appetite to transact has dampened in the US. 'This could end up being good for Europe, because it is forcing European nations to get their act together,' he said. 'The infrastructure fund in Germany, other infrastructure initiatives developing in European countries, the emerging plans for investment in the military across Europe, governments in Europe are supporting investment and therefore growth. Europe has big challenges, but suddenly there's a sense that things are looking up.' 'America First' policies in the US have seen European leaders coin the phrase 'Make Europe Great Again' – a nod to the red baseball cap sported by Trump supporters and Trump himself proclaiming he'll 'make America great again'. Dealmakers say that pressure for Europe to take care of itself is spurring growth. One example is the German government's plans to increase defence spending by 500bn euros in a bid to counter what its chancellor Friedrich Merz called Russian president Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Europe'. Global head of sectors and advisory at BNP Paribas, George Holst, said that a 25pc increase in Emea (Europe, Middle East, Africa) M&A volume was spurred by 'material growth' in deals over 1bn euros, even though the number of transactions is down. 'Higher fiscal stimulus in Europe, paired with the need for greater sovereignty plus a trend of lower rates, has made Europe more attractive on a relative basis,' he said. 'The need and search for a scale is apparent in many sectors and we saw broad activity in a cross section of areas.' Bankers were also expecting an increase in equity capital markets activity after a slump in listings that has resulted in a brutal three years for the business. However, market conditions have led to clients pulling planned IPOs and struggling to price them effectively, dealmakers said. 'This recent period of volatility has reopened the debate on the sustainability of the recently reopened IPO market,' said Gareth McCartney, global co-head of ECM at UBS. 'The consensus was that 2025 would see a return to normalised IPO issuance volumes, but a slow start has questioned this, albeit we have a long way to go.' (The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK)andyjalil@
