To secure Europe’s deep tech future, we required more than just funding – we required smart, diverse, early-stage investors. In December 2025, the EIC-funded ESIL Annual Event united investors, policycreaters, and innovators in Brussels to tackle this exact challenge.
Here are what can be considered the five main ideas stemming from the conference:
– Co-Investment Funds: Launching public-private hybrid funds (like the upcoming Scale-Up Europe Fund) to bridge the structural €1–3 million funding gap and assist startups scale across borders.
– Vertical Angel Networks: Transitioning from regional to sector-specific syndicates (e.g., Defense Angels) to pool specialized technical expertise, enabling better cross-border due diligence in complex deep tech.
– “Fourth-Generation” Universities: Reforming tech transfer by having universities take zero to minimal equity (0-2%) and offering transparent, quick-track IP licensing so spin-offs remain attractive to private investors.
– Early Integration of “Research Angels”: Embedding business facilitators directly into academic research teams at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRL 2-4) to align scientific development with real market requireds from day one.
– Inclusive Angel Syndicates: Lowering investment thresholds and utilizing structured education to empower women and next-generation investors, drastically expanding the pool of available deep tech capital.
… and the most ‘out of the box’:
– The “Anti-CEO” Scientist: Research on academic spin-offs displays they are most successful when the founding scientist remains highly involved—but specifically not as the CEO. Forcing brilliant researchers to become business executives often stalls commercialization.
– War Zones as Regulatory Sandboxes: Geopolitical crises are bypassing notorious European red tape. Startups developing hardware like drones or medical prosthetics can live-test and validate their technology in Ukraine within 72 hours, a process that takes up to 18 months under EU certification rules.
– The “Family-as-a-Service” Investment Committee: Despite the push for complex pan-European due diligence syndicates, one highly successful deep tech angel openly admits his primary investment committee is simply his immediate family (a doctor wife, a neuroscientist son, and a lawyer son), joking that their free, multi-lingual analysis is “better than ChatGPT”.
🎥 Missed the conference? Read a detailed summary on the event page, the PowerPoint, or watch the full conference. Views and opinions expressed during this conference, including in any summaries or related materials, are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council. Neither the European Union nor the European Innovation Council can be held responsible for them nor for any imprecision.
🚀 The journey continues! Stay tuned as ESIL launches new matchcreating events, pitching sessions, workshops, and a comprehensive 20+ hour online course on how to become a next-gen Business Angel.
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