170 likes | 319 Views
TREND IN INNOVATION FINANCE IN THE EU Marc Schublin, Head of Division, European Investment Fund Coordination – General Affairs – Advisory Services Knowledge Economy Forum IV, Istanbul, 23 March 2005. Finance for innovation = the EU side. Summary. EIF as EU Fund of Funds
E N D
TREND IN INNOVATION FINANCE IN THE EU Marc Schublin, Head of Division, European Investment Fund Coordination – General Affairs – Advisory Services Knowledge Economy Forum IV, Istanbul, 23 March 2005
Finance for innovation = the EU side Summary • EIF as EU Fund of Funds • Venture Capital: a difficult market • The limits of Venture Capital in supporting innovation • New Initiatives throughout the EU • Towards new financial instruments and concepts
EIF at a glance • Institutional set-up: • Shareholders: European Investment Bank (60%) – European Commission (30%) – 31 banks 10%) • Contribute to Community objectives (entrepreneurship, research and innovation, regional development, etc …) • Ensure an appropriate return on its own resources • Important role in the context of Lisbon Strategy / 3% target (Innovation – Employment) • EIF products – Venture capital / “Risk Capital Arm” of EIB SME Portfolio guarantees … and Advisory services / Technical assistance
VC investments: EIF’s role • Biggest European early-stage Fund of Funds (EUR 3bn in 200 Funds) • Participates as a pari-passu cornerstone investor (always commercial terms) • Long-term committed and pro-active investor • Know-how helps in structuring a fund / best practice • Widespread network in European venture capital industry which may help to attract co-investors • Neutral, supranational investor • Investments based on own resources and mainly on behalf of EIB VC mandate, EC Seed Capital scheme and ERP Facility (early stage in Germany) • Investment activity only in EU and Acceding Countries
The innovation cycle covered by EIF Future coverage « VENTURE CAPITAL » « PRIVATE EQUITY » Tech Transfer Incubators Pre-Seed Business Angels Seed Early Stage Expansion / Dev. Capital Later-stage Buy-out IPOs Future extended coverage * ADVISORY * Currently covered by EIF advisory services (Technology Transfer Accelerator)
European VC Funds Raised 1990 to 2003: few investors stay on board Source: EVCA / Thomson Financial / PricewaterhouseCoopers
VC is a Risky Business Pooled IRR - December 31, 2003: • Early stage : 1.9% (Top Quarter: 14.8%) • All Venture : 7.2% (Top Quarter: 23.9%) best performing funds are in the segment of €100-250m = 9.2% or 12.8% over a 10-year period • All Private Equity : 9.9% (Top Quarter: 24.3%) Source: European Venture Capital Association (EVCA)
Constraints and limits of VC in supporting Innovation • High risk; very qualified management teams needed • Balance public/private investors? • Good VC funds governance (independence of managers vs investors, transparence, etc.) • Management costs, long maturity • Critical mass • Seed-early stage especially efficient near important “technological clusters” (Heidelberg, Cambridge, Finland, etc…) • In the EU, about 15 000 companies supported by VC (compared to a total SME population of 14 million)
Constraints and limits of VC in support of Innovation: some lessons learnt • Mainly recent public initiatives through appropriate use of budget funding (Research, SME) • Critical mass, grouping of energies, system approach necessary (national vs regional?) • Legal, tax issues are key (No European patent!)
How to support seed? Interesting initiatives (private, public, financial, political) • IP2IPO (UK) = example GBP 20m loan to Oxford Chemistry Department repaid through 50% of IPR during 15 years • KAROLINSKA (S) = pooling of spin-offs sold to VCs • France = merger of Public Innovation Agency ANVAR (managing grants) and SME Development Bank creation of “pôles technologiques” (super clusters) • + UK, B, NL, ITA, etc Appropriation of “Lisbon Strategy” by EU Member States
EIF’s role in this context • Be proactive (EU summit 23 March 2005) on the investment side = 1. Side funds with Business Angels (BA) (if structured as BA networks) (Specific EU funding under the Competitiveness & Innovation Programme) 2. Common approach with EIB, generation of hybrid instruments (Loan – Equity – Mezzanine) • Develop Advisory Services and Technical Assistance
Advisory Services • Complement the 2 main product lines, EIF as a “Multilateral Development Bank” committed to provide technical assistance and advisory services • Objective is to provide financial engineering to organisations active in the field of VC and SME Guarantees • Fee based activity Two domains of intervention • Creation, growth and development of SMEs • VC, seed capital, guarantee schemes, business angel networks, tech transfer, etc. for regional and national authorities / Agencies • Complex financial structures: for the European Commission
Advisory Services • TTA : Avoid fragmentation, incentive Research Centres to work together, bridge the gap between Research and Market • CDTI project : public Innovation Fund of Funds, with targeted support to Tech SMEs (Spain)
TTA 1 Cluster Size Cambridge UK Munich Boston Bay Area Researchers 9,200 6,300 23,550 N/A Publications 15,000 10,000 38,000 29,500 Number of public companies created >11 >4 >38 >44 Number of biotechcompanies located in cluster >110 >60 >200 >190 Large clusters necessary to build self-sustaining ecosystem Source: European Innovation Scoreboard, BCG Cluster Report 2001, EIF analysis and interviews
TTA 1 Licensing Revenues2002 Europe US University Revenues [m€] University Revenues [m€] Pasteur 32.6 University of Edinburgh 4.5 Utrecht* 4.0 Cambridge 3.1 INRIA* 3.0 VIB* 2.7 LMU Munich 0.2 Licensing activity too small to create any noticeable effects Note: *Includes other forms of revenues Source: European Innovation Scoreboard, BCG Cluster Report 2001, EIF analysis and interviews
TTA 2: Focus of TTA funding: Types of SPVs funded by the TTA Tech transfer / Proof-of-concept R&D Marketable product «Techno-logy» IP «Prototype » IP Potential exits for the SPV projects « Licensing » SPVs Licensing to corporation Sale to corporation Purchase / investment by other investors IPO « Spin off » SPVs LAB « Hybrid » SPVs Investment focus of TTA
The CDTI/EIF Spanish Venture Capital Investment Programme EIF Programme Manager/Advisor Parallel supplementary vehicle Fund of Funds CDTI Programme technology partner Young Fund Window Foreign tech funds Generalist funds Tech / Innovation funds Co-invests 1:1 Tech SMEs Tech SMEs Tech SMEs Tech SMEs Generalist SMEs CDTI 1