Page 21 - Annual Report 2010

It is EIF’s intention to promote and stimulate the knowledge transfer and intellectual property markets across Europe and bridge the gap between research and the market. In line with its objective to foster the development of innova-tion in Europe, EIF’s Technology Transfer (TT) investment activity matured in 2010, a year which saw EIF’s pioneer-ing investments into new Member States.

A key event was the establishment of a Knowledge Trans-fer Strategic Partnership signed between EIF/EIB, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC, France), Cassa depositi et prestiti (CDP, Italy), Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI, Spain), Innovationsbron (Sweden), KfW-Bankengruppe (Germany) and Veraven-ture (Finland). With this Strategic Partnership, EIF and like-minded public investors are tackling some of the chal -lenges faced by the Knowledge Transfer sector across Europe, exploring new initiatives such as Intellectual Prop-erty (IP) Patent Funds and IP Marketplaces.

In 2010, building on its f irst successes, EIF renewed its suppor t to CD3, the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery TT plat form and investment fund created by KU Leuven University (Belgium) and backed by EIF in 2006. This commitment demonstrates EIF’s engagement in setting up long-term partnerships with first-class academic institutions and research centres. Early signs of validating CD3’s model were seen in 2010 with the first programme developed at CD3 out - licensed to Pfizer, generating income for both KU Leuven and EIF.

Total net equit y commitments amounted to close to EUR 5.4bn at the end of 2010. With investments in some 350 funds and over 300 Fund Manager teams, EIF is a major player in the European venture capital market, as well as a significant provider of finance to equity funds which invest in more established growth companies.

As shown in the table on the previous page, EIF made, across all funding sources, a total of EUR 930m in equity commitments throughout 2010, increasing its investments by close to 30% from the previous year and significantly amplifying impact on SME-focused funds in a wide variety of sectors.

EIF provided a high level of support to the market by back-ing teams in the early process of their fundraising. It has been instrumental, despite the continuing difficult market conditions, in providing reliable sources of funding to early stage funds, catalysing closure at critical fund sizes and attracting co-investors. In parallel, EIF has also invested in later stage funds (lower mid-market and mezzanine) and backed first time teams and emerging players in small or less developed markets.

EIF has consistently pursued EU objectives promoting entrepreneurship, growth, innovation and job creation. It has also demonstrated a market -oriented approach, actively investing in early-stage innovative and growth SME-focused funds across a large number of European countries, thereby contributing to the development of a balanced European venture capital and equity industry.