In my conversations with emerging venture fund managers, I am often asked about the Limited Partner (LP) landscape in Europe. Understanding your prospects is important when you want to raise a fund. But unfortunately, the LP ecosystem is opaque and difficult to navigate. A few structural characteristics are noticeable when analyzing the investor base of European venture funds. They help to explain why fundraising, especially as an emerging manager, is particularly hard on this side of the Atlantic. This post zooms into the status quo of the European LP landscape to discuss its structural problems and negative second-order effects. 

For Mick Baron, the giant kelp forests of Tasmania were a playground, a school and a church. The former marine biologist runs a scuba-diving center on the Australian island’s east coast, and rhapsodizes about the wonders of the seaweed’s dense habitats. “Diving in kelp is one of the most amazing underwater experiences you can have,” the 65-year-old says, likening it to flying through the canopy of a terrestrial rain forest. “You won’t find a single empty patch in a kelp forest … From the sponge gardens on the seafloor all the way up to the leaves on the surface, it’s packed with life.”

Image: Despite the ocean floor’s proximity and essential role to human survival, we have mapped less of its topography than the surface of Mars. Courtesy of Chris Leidy—Assouline 

Research that starts at NC State doesn’t end here. The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund (CIF) is one way we work to ensure our research reaches the places it’s needed. 

“As a land-grant university, our mission is to positively impact the lives of the residents of North Carolina and beyond by commercializing state-of-the-art research to solve societal problems,” says Wade Fulghum, assistant vice chancellor of the Office of Research Commercialization. “The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund — which has a very successful 10-year track record, generating $18 in additional research funding or investment for every dollar awarded — plays a critical role by providing funding to translate technologies to a point where a startup can be formed for commercialization or a license can be executed with an existing company.”

Image: https://news.ncsu.edu

Understanding why some people develop severe symptoms following a SARS-CoV-2 infection while others remain asymptomatic is one of the most pressing questions in COVID-19 research today. The answer is undoubtedly complicated and multifaceted and will take years of research.

One potentially crucial factor has now been identified by a team of researchers: prior exposure to coronaviruses.

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. Generally they are so focused on killing competitors that they fail to see the positive potential of a strategic partnership or some other type of collaborative relationship. Sometimes you have to put aside the emotion and the passion, and just look at what is best for your business.

We are a few weeks away from back-to-school season, and debate around school reopening is intensifying. Meanwhile, the science around children and COVID-19 is still evolving. One thing is clear: the decision-making process will be unique for each district, school, and family. Here, we answer some of the most pressing questions:

A longtime higher-education buzzword is gathering new buzz: consolidation.

It’s not hard to see the appeal, in the current moment, of combining institutions. Faltering enrollment, shrinking numbers of high-school graduates in the forecast, and feeble state support have compelled public systems — many of them overbuilt for their states’ populations — to explore more, and more ambitious, consolidations. Covid-19 is likely to make those forces even stronger.

No state wears its multicultural veneer more ostentatiously than California. The Golden State’s leaders believe that they lead a progressive paradise, ushering in what theorists Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca call “a new progressive era.” Others see California as deserving of nationhood; it reflects, as a New York Times columnist put it, “the shared values of our increasingly tolerant and pluralistic society.”

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

Biotechnology led the healthcare industry in investment activity from private equity and venture capital during the first half of 2020, drawing nearly $12.60 billion in funding, up from $7.28 billion for the year-ago period.

The biotechnology sector either announced or concluded 342 deals globally as of June 30, comprising mergers and acquisitions and private placements, where the main investor was either a venture capitalist, a hedge fund manager or a private equity company, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Image: https://www.spglobal.com

Businesses from Bangor to Barstow have begun reopening. As they do, the safety of their employees and customers — from both real and perceived risks — have become paramount concerns. Concerns over catching and spreading the coronavirus mean that the roughly 40% of workers able to work from home likely will continue to do so. But for the majority of workers, a physical return looms in at least some capacity.

America’s long-term economic growth demands a stepped-up commitment to promoting the innovation impact of the nation’s top-tier universities and other research institutions. For research institutions themselves, this commitment means prioritizing research, empowering great researchers, building efficient and outcomes-focused technology transfer operations, instilling cultures of innovation and entrepreneurship, and engaging with surrounding business and innovation communities. For America as a whole, it means funding more research resources and paying more attention to the worldwide competition for human talent, including high-skilled immigrants.

As a global recession looms, many businesses find themselves facing an existential crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has signalled an end to a period of untrammelled economic expansion, triggering a sharp rise in unemployment and forcing governments across Europe to introduce sweeping business bail-outs in a bid to stem the tide of insolvency.

Hard times lie ahead—and yet, it’s not all doom and gloom. With European policymakers’ attention firmly focused on getting the bloc’s economy back on track via a recovery plan designed to accelerate digital and green transitions, the crisis could, in fact, herald the beginning of a golden age of opportunity for Europe’s startups.