Investors Are Flocking to Universities:
“The Startups That Are Willing to Listen Are The Ones Who’ll Make It” From robotic arms to allergy pills, startup hubs are popping up at universities all over the place and strengthening the bridge between research and entrepreneurship. But how do investors assess which university startups have what it takes? We asked the experts what they look for. Written by Erik Lillelund
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n 1996, Sergey Brin was asked to give a tour around Stanford University for aspiring graduate students. One of the visitors was Larry Page, whose chemistry with the elder student was instant. A friendship was born and only two years later, the service we today know as the ubiquitous Google was born. Straight out of the campus dormitories. Universities, despite their long-standing culture and tradition, are increasingly becoming hotbeds (in the best sense of the word) for bright ideas and lifelong friendships. What’s more, the increased focus on entrepreneurship in higher education is fostering an ever closer relationship between research, young pioneers and the startup and business community. This may well be where we’ll find solutions to some of the major societal challenges we face in the near and far future. But how do investors and private equity funds assess which projects can
survive outside the university bubble? The process is not all that different from that of analysing other types of startups, according to Mads Lacoppidan, Senior Investment Manager at The Danish Growth Fund who is specialising in medtech companies, which often spring directly from universities. “Uni startups undergo a similar analysis to all other startups, but there are a few things we have to be more aware of,” he says. “For example, the students or researchers generally have a good technical foundation and the research behind any given problem is strong, but the teams tend to be heavily research weighted, and are weaker on the commercial side of things. But that’s also what makes university startups especially exciting for investors.” According to Lacoppidan, this increased focus on entrepreneurship in education matches the ambitions and ideas today’s younger generations are growing up with—in part due to a
From University To Unicorn
