Full Professor at ETH Zurich, Founder and Scientific Director of INSAIT, Tech Entrepreneur
The EU deep-tech report by Lakestar, Walden Catalyst Ventures and Dealroom.co is one of the more detailed ones I've seen to date. Slide 26 of the report shows a rough approximation of the startup value created by unis/countries. Deep-tech is certainly the startup space that most strongly correlates with world-class research and the people who do it. Thus, attempts to develop that type of economy must focus on building up world-class research institutions.
Thank you Martin, very informative! Where is Bulgaria in the ranking and what is the impact off INSAIT?
Thanks for sharing this very comprehensive report Martin Vechev! Similar to the Global Innovation Index, it highlights Europe's strength in creating new technologies out of top scientific institutions like ETH Zürich (measured by the number of papers, patents, spin-offs). However, while a lot of public funding is going into keeping this research at top level, there is a huge gap when it comes to the translation and commercialization of deep tech inventions. As the report states on p.112 "Despite strong research, too few entrepreneurs and too little capital are available in Europe". In my view, there is one game-changing measure that can enable a deeptech-driven economy in Europe: European pension funds should deploy 100x more capital into deeptech via commitments into Europe-focused deeptech VCs. In 2023, European pension funds allocated only 600mln, or 0.02% of their assets to VCs. In comparison, US pension funds allocate 1-5% of their assets to VCs.
Thanks Martin Vechev for the kind words of appreciation! Cc Steven Jacobs Lukas Leitner Yoram Wijngaarde Lorenzo Chiavarini
Thanks for sharing. It shows spinout value as well which is a proper thing to do. I still do not see number of jobs created and also not company values created. Switzerland is doing well compared to Germany which is 10x bigger. My guess is relative more jobs were created in the UK and also higher company values as they are much closer linked to the US. No comparison with the US though is shown. On a per capita basis I have seen numbers that are 40x higher in the US compared with Germany and also 10x higher than Switzerland. Comparing numbers globally is key if you truly want to establish yourself as a leader. Building strong deep-tech research institutions is an important part of a well working tech ecosystem but not the most important one. Enterprise innovation investments, high-value exits to local stock markets, and most importantly risk-taking culture are key to create well paying jobs for the PhDs and MSc etc. you create at e.g. the ETHs. The gap to the US and China is here huge still. Not in terms of pay for university professors though. :-)
I think the industry would be better off without made up terms like "deep tech", "digital twin", etc.
Thanks for sharing!
Full Professor at ETH Zurich, Founder and Scientific Director of INSAIT, Tech Entrepreneur
3moReport: https://dealroom.co/uploaded/2023/09/The-European-Deep-Tech-Report-2023.pdf