R2B in Germany

Although tapping into the research and development capabilities of universities and research centres by venture capital firms is nothing new in the US and UK, it has yet to become as widely established in many continental European countries. Now First Ventury AG plans to raise a E100m fund to back aspirant entrepreneurs within Germany’s institutes of higher education.

The Karlsruhe based fund notes in a launch statement that only four per cent of the patents registered in Germany come from such institutes and suggests that the time is ripe for a proactive investment approach that will generate compelling returns from “professionally handled technology transfer”.

The Chairman of First Ventury, Uwe Feuersenger, has assembled a management team as well as an advisory board of more than 50, all of whom have significant experience in business and science. The firm is presently fundraising.

Keen to emphasise the fund’s Research to Business [R2B] approach, the company says that it “supports the efforts of many scientists to market their inventions and to reap the fruits of their own labours and inventiveness”.