PSV Hafnium, a Danish enterprise fund devoted solely to deep tech, has landed a €24.8 million dedication from the European Funding Fund (EIF) and a €13.4 million dedication from Export and Funding Fund of Denmark (EIFO) in supporting groundbreaking startups in Denmark and throughout the Nordic area. With a fund measurement cap of €80.4 million (DKK 600 million), it goals to again science-based clear tech, well being tech and subsequent era industrial options, and expects to put money into 30 firms.
The fund is dedicated to speculate at minimal 65% in what EIF phrases as ‘Local weather Motion and Environmental Sustainabilty’. Additional, as a part of the PSV enterprise home, and with PSV Foundry as LP within the fund, PSV Hafnium has an in depth hyperlink to DTU. Right here the fund is near scientific specialists and innovation, benefitting from the DTU ecosystem. DTU has the previous years been ranked as no. one in Europe relating to engineering and expertise.
“Deep tech is one a part of the multi-faceted answer for our local weather challenges,” stated EIF Chief Govt Marjut Falkstedt. “The EIF’s mission is to ensure that European companies can entry the funding they want, particularly within the earliest phases of their improvement. Our help for this fund will contribute to assembly this essential market want and guaranteeing the supply of capital for novel applied sciences that may have a really actual influence in addressing local weather and environmental challenges.”
Erik Balck Sørensen, CIO at EIFO, added: “EIFO is dedicated to leveraging groundbreaking Danish deep tech analysis for transformative options. With the robust help of EIF Denmark now has its first-ever early-stage deep tech fund, designed to satisfy the phase’s particular want for affected person, long-term working capital. The EIF’s sizeable engagement in PSV Hafnium is a recognition of the standard of Danish deep tech analysis and an endorsement of the PSV Hafnium administration staff. By way of this funding, we hope to fast-track the commercialisation of probably the most promising deep tech analysis.”
The Head of the European Fee Illustration to Denmark, Per Haugaard, added: “It’s essential that we safe investments in deep tech firms throughout the continent, which is precisely what PSV Hafnium strives to do. EU is in a worldwide race to achieve local weather neutrality and develop the applied sciences that may form the worldwide economic system for many years to come back.”
At DTU, President Anders Bjarklev seems to be ahead to having an actor like PSV Hafnium, as its funding give attention to science and engineering-based expertise firms intently aligns with DTU’s work: “DTU’s imaginative and prescient is to create worth for society and the world by means of analysis that solves international challenges and helps innovations in direction of the market. Constructing bridges between college and enterprise environments is completely important, which is why it has been essential for us to help PSV Foundry and the Managing Companions in making a fund with a 100% give attention to deep tech.”
The administration staff will mix related scientific abilities, enterprise constructing and VC funding expertise to focus on related firms within the areas of scientific primarily based deep tech, together with amongst others {hardware}, software program and new supplies. And with a twin carry construction the administration staff is incentivized to ship on the influence promise.
The founding and managing companions within the fund echo the joy in regards to the institution of this new unbiased fund: “We’re extremely comfortable now having the ability to speed up early-stage investments in bold Danish and Nordic science-based expertise firms. EIFs help has proven to be instrumental in guaranteeing that new and promising deep tech startups will see the sunshine of day. And though we’re an independently managed industrial enterprise fund, we’re proud to have the ability to profit considerably from our DTU heritage, together with its fields of information and experience. The fund’s portfolio firms might be deeply rooted in distinctive and infrequently patented expertise that may give them a worldwide aggressive benefit. Area-wise, this portfolio may have a transparent publicity to the inexperienced transition, and we’re wanting ahead to learn from the huge expertise coming from EIF, EIFO and its portfolio of extremely profitable enterprise funds.”
Investments might be pre-seed and seed stage, sometimes science-based expertise backed by robust mental property, validated in a lab and/or related setting, in addition to run by groups with robust scientific backgrounds. The fund has a broad sector focus justified by its slender geographical scope, because the staff might be primarily sourcing funding alternatives in Denmark, the place the staff can leverage its connections to Danish universities to entry privileged deal stream and help its portfolio firms.
