Our Chief Investment Officer John Pearson shares his view on why deeptech funds should look more closely at university spinouts.
Our Chief Investment Officer, John Pearson, has been featured in Sifted Pro, in an interview with Sifted analyst Oshin Narang on why so few deeptech funds back university spinouts.
The piece looks at the questions investors most often raise about spinouts, including commercial experience in founding teams, university equity and finding deals early, and how spinout investors approach them. Sifted notes that deeptech now takes a larger share of Europe’s early-stage funding than before, but that university spinouts still receive a small part of it.
John, who has backed spinouts from 22 UK universities, spoke about the strength of the technology coming out of UK universities and the role of technology transfer offices in bringing experienced executives into new companies. On the growth of new spinout funds, he said:
“I don’t think we’re competing with them. I think there’s plenty of deals. We just need some more capital.”
He also expects the number of investors in the space to rise gradually, provided the right policies remain in place, including EIS and support for technology transfer offices and regional networks.
Read the full article on Sifted: Deeptech VCs are still risk-averse with spinouts, and it’s costing them, say Europe’s leading spinout investors