Achievements & Learning Points A presentation to the FITT Conference, Brussels by David Moir, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge UK 10 th May 2011

Partnership & Objectives A Consortium of 9 organisations from 5 EU countries including 2 universities, 2 business incubators, 2 specialists in early-stage financing, 2 incubator networks and a communications specialist. A Partnership of 45 leading-edge business & technology incubators, 8 ICT clusters, 5 early-stage investors and 4 stakeholders across 28 European countries plus an Advisory Council of 8 policy experts from across Europe. A set of objectives focused on:- o assisting 400 European SMEs o assembling a powerful toolkit o establishing the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Exchange (EIX) o investigate and contribute to new early stage funding models o investigate & enhance networking between clusters and incubators o evolve & deliver strong policy advice

OUTCOMES – the EIX & Tools Entrepreneurship & Innovation Exchange o EIX at the heart of ACHIEVE More ( ) o 535 members, 49 countries (EU, Brazil, NZ, Bahrain) o Entrepreneurs, incubators, investors, clusters, researchers o Hub for blogs, documents and tool sharing Tools o ISMA 360 © - Marketing strategy development coaches trained, 300+ SMEs coached o Investor Readiness - 2-day course “to understand how investors think” - Now run by many incubators in the EIX: Delft, Gate Garching, Timisoara - 41 training sessions, 752 businesses 59 investments, total €9.9m disclosed

OUTCOMES – PPP Seed Funds FundTypeSizePublic: Private Sources of FundingManaged by Invest per company ChalmersCentre of Excellence €17m1:2EIF, Chalmers U of Tech, Länsförsäkringar Alliance, 6th Swedish National Pension Fund, alumni Chalmers Innova- tion <SEK0.5m (€45k) in incubation Phase. < SEK1.5m total Main PortIndustry Specific €8m1:1TechnoPartner, Delft U of Tech, Rabobank, KLM, Schipol Group RabobankAverage may not exceed €800,000 NE AngelRegional€19.5m1:1.3NE Finance, local angels Rivers Capital £50k to £150,000

OUTCOMES – Networking & Media. Cluster – Incubator Networking o Progress on understanding & exploitation of complementarities between incubators and clusters o Survey shows fields of activity for further cooperation Media Communications Strategy o Support European policy of applauding: o Starting own business / Willingness to take risks o Media Library: o 43 films (each available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian & Polish versions) document experiences in incubators, start-ups and ICT clusters in 6 countries o Films downloaded >7,000 times

OUTCOMES – Overall Impact External Funds Leveraged > €54.4M Total SMEs Impacted1002 (direct) (indirect) = 1774 Percentage of Target 400 SMEs251% (direct) + 193% (indirect) = 444%

CONCLUSIONS Our Policy Recommendations focus on 5 areas:- o Support of Skills Needed for KIS Ventures o EIX Networking Platform o Establishing PPP Seed Funds o Clustering Better Practice o Media Communications Strategy Paramount in terms of Future Lessons are:- o Tools – Effectiveness of “train-the-trainer” approach o EIX – the power of social networking but... o Seed Funds –investor education (understanding KIS) –importance of tax breaks – cross border lessons