Global Venture Capital Investors Enthusiastic About U.S.

Survey participants rated Brazil at 3.13, down 42 basis points from 2012; China at 3.27, down 18 basis points from 2012; and India at 3.08, down 16 basis points from 2012.

Cloud Computing Ascendant

For the second year in a row, U.S. venture capital investors surveyed named cloud computing as the area they were most confident investing in, with a 4.29 rating, trailed closely by mobile technology at 4.28.

Enterprise software followed at 4.00, and health care IT and services at 3.87. Global venture capital investors survey responses showed similar results: cloud computing (4.11), mobile (4.02) and health care IT and services (3.94).

U.S. investors gave lowest confidence scores to energy/clean technologies (2.47) and semiconductors (2.33), while the global group showed the least confidence for investments in hardware (2.83) and semiconductors (2.76).

Overall confidence about the global economy increased 33 basis points from the previous year to 3.20. Fifty-five percent of investors expressed a neutral sentiment about global economic prospects.

Among U.S.-based participants, confidence in the global economy scored 2.96, up 19 basis points from 2013.

U.S. Policymaking Doubted

Across the globe, the U.S. maintained its position as the best country in which to invest, rating 4.03, followed by Israel at 3.71, Canada at 3.48 and Germany at 3.38.

However, U.S.-based respondents doubted government’s ability to enact policies that support domestic venture capital, private equity and growth equity investment in the coming year.

Confidence in government policymaking dropped from a collective 2.17 in 2013 to 2.05 in this year’s survey, the lowest among the countries surveyed.

“A global environment where capital flows to companies from creation to growth to exit depends, in part, on government policies that encourage investment in new ideas and provide a clear pathway for innovations to go to market,” Scott Sandell, general partner of New Enterprise Associates and chairman of NVCA, said in the statement.

“Decreased confidence in government drives capital away from economies, and if more isn’t done to improve the U.S. policymaking process, we could lose our foothold as the preeminent destination for innovation investment.”

Confidence of respondents from 11 other countries in their government’s support averaged a 3, but all of them had higher confidence levels than the U.S. respondents.

Investors’ confidence in their home government’s ability to help domestic venture capitalists via incentives, policy and legislation were highest for India (3.83), China (3.63) and Japan (3.58).