What Does it Need to Scale Europe’s Spinoff Ecosystem?

• Deep tech's share of European VC has tripled since before the pandemic, now accounting for over a third of all venture capital invested on the continent
• 76 European spinouts have reached unicorn status or $100M+ in revenue, with a combined value approaching $400 billion
• Germany needs €20 billion per year in venture capital by 2030, but currently deploys around €8 billion. That's a €12 billion annual gap
• After Series B, more than 50% of capital in European deep tech companies comes from outside Europe
• IP transfer negotiations average 18.4 months. Founders spend over a year in legal limbo before they can raise a serious round
• Seven of the ten largest acquirers of European deep tech startups are American corporations

At the Spinoff Summit 2026 in Garching, four people with genuinely different vantage points on the European spinoff ecosystem sat down to talk about it honestly. Ana Benítez-Mateos from TUM brought the academic perspective. Andreas Zaby from SPRIND represented public innovation funding. Max Vellguth from Joachim Herz Stiftung came from the philanthropic side. Sebastian Böhmer from First Momentum joined as an investor.

The conversation was about as candid as on-stage panels get. Here's what came out of it.

Real progress, real gaps

The numbers support cautious optimism. According to data cited during the panel, 76 European spinouts have achieved unicorn status or exceeded $100 million in revenue, with a combined value approaching $400 billion. Over a third of European venture capital now flows into deep tech, roughly triple the share from before the pandemic.

That last number matters for a specific reason. The total pool of European venture capital didn't grow dramatically over the last five or six years. Deep tech's share within it did. Founders building in frontier science, advanced materials, quantum, and industrial tech are no longer afterthoughts in the ecosystem.

Ana flagged something that's easy to miss in the headline data: the cultural shift inside universities. A decade ago, students saw two paths: stay in academia or join a large company. Entrepreneurship is now a third option that students take seriously. Munich and ETH Zurich are generating hundreds of funded startups per year. That's not a coincidence; it's the result of real infrastructure being built: venture labs, incubators, networks that simply weren't there before.

Where First Momentum fits in this

First Momentum started on campus at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The founding story isn't complicated. They were students who noticed that the infrastructure for turning research into companies was missing, built some of it themselves, and eventually realized the missing piece was capital that actually understood the work.

Sebastian described the moment the fund idea clicked: a visit to Aalto University in Finland, where a student-run fund was already investing in campus spinouts. Back in Germany, early-stage deep tech founders were pitching to investors whose mental model was e-commerce and B2C software. That mismatch was the gap they built into.

It's still the gap they occupy. Pre-seed, technical founders, deep tech: sectors where the right investor makes a genuine difference because understanding the technology isn't optional.

The scaling gap

The most direct part of the panel was about scaling. Not ideation, not early funding. Scaling.

Europe has strong talent. It has solid early-stage infrastructure. Real research comes out of great institutions. The growth capital needed to take a company from €5 million in revenue to €50 million and beyond is largely absent.

Max co-authored a study with UnternehmerTUM that put a number on this. Germany's venture capital market runs at around €8 billion per year. Meeting the capital needs of Series A companies currently in the pipeline through 2030 would require roughly €20 billion per year. That's a €12 billion annual gap, and it compounds. Companies that don't get funded don't exit, and exits are what generate the returns that attract the next wave of institutional capital.

The downstream effect is visible today. After Series B, more than 50% of capital flowing into European deep tech companies comes from outside Europe. Capital from the US or Asia comes with its own incentives and exit preferences, and they don't always align with the needs of building industrial companies in Europe.

Andreas from SPRIND put it plainly: seven of the ten largest acquirers of European deep tech startups are American corporations. The companies are good enough to buy, but they're not staying European.

Five things that need to move

The panel covered several levers. None of them is new, which is part of the frustration.

Institutional investors. Most European pension funds run 0% venture capital allocation. In the US, it's a standard part of institutional portfolios. France and the UK have done more to shift this through policy; Germany hasn't caught up. Without institutional money cycling into growth-stage funds, the gap stays open.

IP transfer speed. The average IP negotiation between a spinout founder and their university reportedly runs 18.4 months. That's a year and a half in legal limbo before a founder can raise a proper round. The Dutch IP system came up during the panel as a positive comparison: a simpler process, faster resolution, and a design with the founder's timeline in mind.

Public procurement. Governments say they support deep tech. Their purchasing behavior tells a different story. Defense is the visible case right now, given current geopolitics, but the same gap exists in healthcare, energy, and education. Startups building for regulated sectors need a first customer. Governments are the obvious candidate. They're mostly absent.

Corporate engagement. Large European corporates are significantly less willing than their American counterparts to buy from or acquire early-stage companies. Sebastian's point was specific: most of the most valuable US companies were founded in the last 30 to 40 years, which makes them faster-moving acquirers of new technology. That's probably the clearest explanation for the exit gap.

Access to research infrastructure. Across First Momentum's portfolio, some companies need access to rocket test stands, particle accelerators, or specialist testing facilities that no early-stage startup can build on its own. Public institutions that open access to these facilities, without prohibitive entry barriers or multi-year queues, directly affect how fast a company can move.

The urgency is real

The European deep tech spinoff ecosystem has built genuine substance over the last decade. The Munich and Zurich success stories aren't accidents; they're the result of years of infrastructure investment, cultural change, and patient capital. Hamburg only got its stakeholders aligned in late 2024. Even large, well-resourced cities can take a long time to get this right.

Germany is losing an estimated 10,000 industrial jobs per month. The companies that could replace that output are being built right now, often on university campuses. Getting them to scale requires closing the growth capital gap, fixing the IP transfer process, and persuading institutional investors and governments to act accordingly.

That’s why we co-host the European Spinoff Summit each year. By bringing investors, spinoff founders, academia, and public institutions into one room, we align the incentives, capital, and expertise required to scale Europe’s next generation of deep-tech champions.

First Momentum also tracks the benchmarks every year in our Deep Tech Napkin. The direction is right. The question is speed.

Frequently asked questions

What is the European deep tech spinoff ecosystem? It's the network of universities, public funding agencies, venture capital funds, foundations, and corporates that work together to turn academic research into fundable companies. In Europe, this is concentrated in hubs like Munich, Zurich, and Stockholm, with cities like Hamburg building out fast. The infrastructure (university incubators, technology transfer offices, early-stage funds) has grown significantly in the last decade.

How many European spinouts have reached unicorn status? According to data shared at Spinoff Summit 2026, 76 European spinouts have reached either unicorn status or more than $100 million in revenue, with a combined value approaching $400 billion. These figures were cited from a European spinouts report; verify against the primary source before republishing.

What is the funding gap for European deep tech scale-ups? Based on a study co-authored by Joachim Herz Stiftung and Unternehmertum, Germany's venture capital market runs at around €8 billion per year. Funding the Series A companies already in the pipeline through 2030 would require roughly €20 billion per year, a gap of approximately €12 billion annually. This is a Germany-specific figure; the gap across Europe is larger.

Why does IP transfer take so long for university spinoffs in Europe? IP negotiations between spinout founders and their universities average 18.4 months in Europe, according to data referenced at the panel. The process involves legal teams on both sides, valuation disputes, licensing terms, and exclusivity questions. Every month in that process is a month the founder can't raise a proper seed round. The Netherlands has implemented a faster model, designed with founder timelines in mind, and came up during the panel as the clearest working example of how to do it differently.

Why are American companies the biggest acquirers of European deep tech startups? Seven of the ten largest acquirers of European deep tech startups are US corporations, based on figures shared at the panel. The most direct explanation: large US technology companies are younger on average than their European counterparts and have a longer history of acquiring early-stage companies. European corporates have been slower to develop that culture, though there are early signs of change in defense and energy.

What share of European deep tech funding comes from outside Europe? After Series B, more than 50% of capital in European deep tech companies comes from non-European investors, primarily from the US and Asia. This reflects the gap in European growth-stage funds, not the quality of the companies.

What is the Spinoff Summit? The Spinoff Summit is an annual event focused on the European university spinoff ecosystem, held in Garching near Munich. It brings together founders, academics, investors, and policymakers to discuss the state of deep tech commercialization in Europe. First Momentum is the co-organizer.