Press release. Technology startups have great potential to drive innovation and progress. However, they also present unique challenges that only experienced IP investors can effectively address. A new report published today by the European Patent Office (EPO) reveals the investors who are making it possible to commercialize cutting-edge technological developments. According to the report, Technology investment in Europe is mainly driven by large public programs and specialized private investorswhich reveals a deficit in private financing compared to the investment landscape seen in the United States.
«Startups play a crucial role in commercializing technological advances with great potential to drive progress. However, as Mario Draghi’s report highlights, many innovative companies face many financial obstacles to growth within Europe.points out António Campinos, president of the OEP. «This funding gap hinders the transformation of innovation into scalable startups, leading entrepreneurs to seek opportunities abroad. Closing this gap is crucial to revitalizing sustainable growth across Europe.”
The report presented today by the EPO uses a new metric, the Technology Investor Score (TIS), which measures the percentage of companies in an investor’s portfolio that have filed patent applications. . Taking advantage of this metric designed to identify specialized technology investors, the study reveals that 88% of European investors have portfolios that include companies with patents. Additionally, 8% have patents in more than half of the companies in their portfolios, demonstrating a strong commitment to the startups they patent.
The top 5 investors in the European co-investor network are large public entities specialized in technology financing. These are the European Innovation Council (ERC), Innovate UK, the Eurostars Program for SMEs, Bpifrance and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The top 100 also includes pan-European public institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other national innovation agencies. Regarding private investors occupying the top 100 positions, 62% focus on financing early stages of development, while only 22% specialize in financing late stages. In this way, the limited capital available in Europe to develop technologies and commercialize them is revealed. By contrast, in the US, private investors represent 98 of the top 100 investors in the co-investor network. Likewise, more than half specialize in investments in advanced stages, demonstrating that there is greater private support for the development of high-tech companies in this region.
Spain is the fourth largest technology investor in Europe. With a total of 1,048 investors in our country between 2000 and 2023, and accumulating more than 11,500 transactions, it presents great potential due to its high investment levels. More than 44,000 million euros have been allocated to finance these investments. The investors with the highest number of transactions in Spain are mainly found in the Basque Country, which reflects the great commitment to innovation in this region. Among them, several state-level public entities stand out, such as the Community of Madrid, the Government of the Basque Country or the Association of Gipuzkoa Companies (ADEGI), as well as the private BIC Gipuzkoa, BIC Bizkaia or Enisa.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany lead in terms of attracting financing, both by volume of capital and the number of transactions, with a notable presence of technology investors. Together, these three countries concentrated a total of approximately 75,800 transactions, attracting total financing of around €392 billion between 2000 and 2023, backed by around 6,100 investors with a portfolio of at least ten companies. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Belgium also show high levels of patent-backed investment, with more than 24,400 accumulated transactions and almost €88.5 billion in the same period. Other European countries have a total of more than 22,000 transactions, with a total financing of more than 70 billion euros. All this puts on the table the great growth potential of technological specialization in Europe.
How to address the challenges of financing startups in Europe. The comprehensive mapping of technological investors offered by the study represents a new effort by the EPO to support SMEs and startups in Europe. As a complement to the study, the EPO has updated the search engine Deep Tech Finder with a new filter to find the most suitable investors for startups. This will help startups find the most suitable investors for their specific company profile, based on criteria such as the type of financing round, country or technological field. This update thus expands the functionalities of Deep Tech Finder, a free tool that already allows users to easily find more than 10,000 startups, spin-off companies and European universities with patent applications at the EPO.
