EVCA opens its books

The European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association is releasing an exhaustive set of data covering the continent’s private equity activity.

The trade association is providing full access to industry data on investments, realisations and fundraising. The EVCA’s portal allows visitors to breakdown stats by specific countries. Users can then drill down into aggregated data on funds’ investment strategies, sources of fundraising and sector focus. 

“We're not about making money,” said an EVCA spokesperson who added the group's priority was to shed light on the size and scope of the industry. Industry data was previously only available to registered EVCA members. 

The transparency initiative includes open access to the EVCA’s policy and regulatory files; including its own financial records beginning next month. Moreover the trade body voluntarily registered itself with the “Register of Interest representatives”, an online database of lobbyists launched in 2008 by the EU government.

“As the representative body for the private equity and venture capital industry across Europe, there is a legitimate interest taken in our activities from a wide range of industry stakeholders. It is therefore important that we adhere publicly to the highest standards of best practice across all our activities, including political advocacy and governmental relations, communications and industry representation,” said in a statement EVCA secretary-general Dörte Höppner.