For the second year running, a team of Oxford MBAs has won the European final of the prestigious international Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC). The winning team comprised MBA students Evan Castiglia, Dave Curran, Karl Curtis, Catherine Dupėrė and Mark Porteous.

At the final, held at London Business School on 26 February 2010, the five students took on the role of the partners of a fictitious venture capital fund. They had just over 36 hours to analyse four real business plans, decide which one to invest in and define the legal and financial terms of the financing. They then participated in a due diligence session with entrepreneurs, followed by a negotiation on the investment terms, and questions from the judges. The judges were from major London venture capital funds, London Business School, and the law firm Brown Rudnick LLP.

The Oxford team impressed the judges and beat Cambridge, Cranfield, HEC, IESE, Insead, Manchester and Rotterdam to the first prize. They will now go forward to the international VCIC final to be held at UNC Kenan-Flagler on April 9, 2010. The team benefited from advice from members of last year’s winning team and from Stephan Chambers, the director of the MBA programme.