📬 EWVC Newsletter: Deep Tech in 🇪🇺 Europe and focus on 🇪🇸 Spain - S4I and 4YFN events
European Women in VC
Community of like-minded individuals working towards increasing number of women in VC management roles.
Welcome to the February 2024 edition of our Newsletter!
Quote of the day: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Dr Jane Goodall, Scientist & Activist
Dear Friends of European Women in VC,
Deep tech is like the secret sauce of innovation ⚗️. It's not just about creating cool gadgets or apps, it's about delving into science and technology to solve some of the world's toughest challenges.
Think about it: deep tech ventures explore cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, and more. These aren't just buzzwords; they're the building blocks of a future where anything seems possible.
And why is deep tech so relevant? Well, imagine a world where diseases are diagnosed more accurately and treated more effectively 🧪, where renewable energy sources power our cities, and where smarter algorithms enhance our everyday lives.
Deep tech is the driving force behind these visions and the market has been paying attention 📈, according to Lakestar “Deep Tech has been the second-best performing sector in Q3 and Q4 of 2022, with valuation dropping by 9% from 2021, but that pales in comparison to the 45% drop in the overall VC market.”
Read the full Lakestar report here. Thank you Christina for sharing with us.
Deep Tech startups often rely in long development timelines and high capital requirements which require a different investment approach that might not match the standard methods 📑 used in evaluating startups.
The difficulty of investing in Deep Tech lies in understanding the complex nature of the technologies used by these Startups and where these 3 points are crucial must haves:
EUVC published a great article on “How investors spot red flags in deep tech startups”.
Even though Deep Tech has been the talk of the town, “Last year only 3% of VC funding in Deep Tech was invested in startups that were female-only founded.” according to Lakestar.
Yet there’s a glimpse of hope. Women notoriously tend to focus on solving problems that impact the whole, combining financial ambitions with social impact. Within Deep Tech, Green Tech has been gaining momentum and may be the driving force for ending the disparity in funding with an ever growing number of female led startups doing incredible work. “The International Energy Agency estimates that by mid-century almost half of required emissions reductions will call for technologies that are not yet on the market.”
In light of this, EIC has been extremely active in Deep Tech, in one year it approved €1 billion in venture investments spread over 159 startups and SMEs.
3 of these startups were:
On the climate focus side, we highly regard the new podcast series by Susan Su.
The Nordics have been particularly active, having the biggest rounds and where six of the ten biggest raises, ranging between €75m and €1.5bn, in 2023, were climate tech startups: H2 Green Steel, battery scale-up Northvolt and heat pump startup Aira, to name a few.
Quantum technology expertise and developments has also seen a boost in both private and government investment. With ongoing government initiatives in the Nordics, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Spain. We are very keen to see latest developments i.a. at 🇫🇮 IQM.
In Southern Europe, 🇵🇹 Portugal and 🇪🇸 Spain have also been heavily focused on Deep Tech investing and we’re happy to be flying over to Barcelona to attend 4YFN invited by Telefonica.
Regarding inequality, Spain poses an interesting case for investing, “Based on the statistics, it seems that for now investing in startups is a man's thing, with one very interesting exception, and that is in the case of Business Angels in Spain. If in 2019 there were only 10% of Business Angels who were women, now they are 37%”, according to Blanca Drake Rodríguez-Casanova, head of innovation and marketing at Telefónica. Read the full article here.
This is what we’ve been up to 🤸🏽♀️
This January we headed over to 🇪🇸 Madrid to attend S4Industry (Science for Industry), a deeptech focused event created by Almudena Trigo Lorenzo, Founding Partner and Chairwoman at BeAble Capital and European Women in VC Founding Member!
Almudena welcomed remarkable individuals to dive into how Deep Science will save the world. Sergio Imparato from Harvard University, Bernice Lee OBE from Chatham House and Stéphane Ouaki 🇺🇦🇪🇺 (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency), were some of the exceptional speakers sharing insights.
Marcia Maciel had the pleasure of sitting down with Almudena and getting a better understanding of Deep Tech investing in Spain:
Recommended by LinkedIn
Spanish Researchers develop very disruptive technologies, but in order for them to not remain in a laboratory drawer, they have to be translated into a product that solves an unmet need in the market. This transformation is not easy and that is why it is very important that there are funds specialised in this because it is not just about investing money, but about transforming that technology into a product, scale it up, develop it, create a company with everything that entails, it is necessary to attract talent so that that company is balanced from a business and technological point of view. Spain is a world power in the development of impact science. We are 11th in the world ranking of generators of impact science. What we need is to put that science on the market so that this science translates into improvements and advances for society and for that science to be an economic engine for our country.
We are very satisfied with the result. We have had more than 2000 attendees, 90 Deep Science startups that have made pitches, more than 300 meetings have been held... We want Science for Industry to become the first international meeting point around Deep Science, since it is a very necessary event that did not exist to date. Deep Science has very different characteristics compared to other economic sectors and it is essential that in Spain, and at the European level as well, we begin to have a dialogue focused only on the aspects that allow this sector to grow. It is an event where Deep Sciences companies, policy makers, researchers, universities, investors come together... which makes it a unique event, an event where a necessary dialogue can be generated between all these actors so that scientific advances become tangible realities that can reach society.
Marcia also met Ana Maiques, winner of the European Innovator Prize and CEO of Neuroelectrics (scale up based in 🇪🇸 Barcelona and 🇺🇸 Boston)
1. Why is deep science investment so important and impactful nowadays?
My belief is that some of the challenges that humankind has, like climate change or health, will only be solved by new knowledge and new technologies. Going back to science to bring new energy sources, or understand how the brain works to help pandemics like Alzheimer or other diseases is the only way we can find new solutions to this huge problems. It is not an app or a software code that will help us in these very hard problems.
2. What has been your experience as a female entrepreneur in the Deep Science space, trying to create and also fund Deep Science innovation?
Brain Science is such a beautiful field to be working on. On one hand the brain is one of the most difficult parts of our body with 100 billion neurons connecting constantly in what Ramon Cajal described as an impenetrable forest, on the other hand millions of patients are suffering today from diseases such as Epilepsy, Depression or Alzheimer with no good therapeutic options.
3. What do you think could be the role of the largest global asset allocators to make sure breakthrough innovation has access to the necessary amount of funding? How to persuade them to collaborate?
I think we need more long term capital and more long term strategies with regards innovation. Unfortunately deep tech requires significant amount of capital and time de design the new solutions that will be really helpful for humanity
Marcia Maciel, Head of Growth at European Women in VC said:
“Participating in an event like Science4Industry was an amazing opportunity to see how this ecosystem is developing, getting access to some groundbreaking data about the market and advocate for a stronger presence of female investors supporting this mission.”
Some notable Spanish startups that raised funding in 2023 were:
This month you will find us at 🔭
We’re flying south once more (lucky us!), headed to 4YFN in 🇪🇸 Barcelona, check the program and apply for a FREE ticket here!
During the our time in Barcelona we’d love to meet you 👋🏽
For drinks at 6pm at Fira Barcelona Gran Via - please let us know you’re joining here
Or for the Women Founders Breakfast on the 28th, at 9am at Norrsken House Barcelona - register here organised together with Borski Fund and Hearst Lab.
In other news 📺
You might also like 📚🎧
We're a squad of over 1000 senior female venture capital wizards from all over Europe and beyond. We're here to flip the script and make things right.
Join us in shaking up the VC world!
See you next month 🚀 European Women in VC Follow us on LinkedIn