It’s never been an easy ride, but in the wake of financial meltdown, high-risk, innovative start-ups are finding it tougher than ever to bridge the funding gap and get products out of the lab and onto the market, or at least advance them to the stage where large companies will pay to take them on.
Banks aren’t lending, venture capital funds have dried up, and now as austerity measures kick-in, public venture funding is getting exhausted too.
All of which presents a huge barrier to the EU’s new Innovation Union strategy for reshaping our busted economies. As Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science said when she launched the strategy in October, Europe has an “Innovation Emergency.” At the heart of that emergency are the ongoing difficulties Europe’s entrepreneurs face as they try to get good ideas to market.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Science|Business Innovative companies: Going for broke?
Author: Anna Jenkinson
